10 tips to avoid wasting time at meetings

This month’s theme in South Holland’s ongoing campaign to cut waste is “wasted time”. One of the ways in which we waste time is in unnecessary or unproductive meetings. We have a lot of meetings in Local Government so you’d think we’d be experts at running good ones but this isn’t always so. Here are my 10 top tips 

1. Is the meeting really necessary? Be clear on its purpose don’t just roll over from one meeting to the next because that’s the way its always been. 
2. Are the right people at the meeting? Invite only the people who are needed ( the fewer the better) and if its a long meeting with a number of agenda items invite people for specific agenda items only. 
3. Consider a suitable venue for the meeting - do all attendees have to be physically present in the room or would a telephone conference or video conference be better. 
4. Plan the meeting beforehand including start and finishing times, make sure all attendees understand why the meeting has been called, why they have been invited and what is expected of them. 
5. Start on time and expect attendees to arrive on time - don’t excuse lateness 
6. Expect attendees to come prepared having read papers circulated with the agenda before they arrive at the meeting. 
7. Ban multi-tasking. No mobile phones, text messaging, emails during the meeting. 
8. Insist attendees speak in plain English and avoid jargon so that all present can understand and follow what is being said. 
9. Make sure the meeting has an effective chairperson to keep the meeting focused on its purpose, deal with confusion or conflict, and assign actions to individuals 
10. Don’t automatically set the date for the next meeting - check that one is really necessary 

Please let me know if you have any further tips. 

There are some great quotations on meetings please share your favourite. Here’s one to get you started

  “ Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything” J.K.Galbraith