As we help our clients make effective change, we often see the burden of ‘busyness’; people trying to juggle priorities and meet deadlines while remaining open to new opportunities.
One of the biggest time drainers can be the ‘unnecessary meeting’; the event that takes vital space in the diary but doesn’t serve a useful purpose.
If you’re wanting a simple criterion to assess the value of every meeting you’re asked to attend or organise, use the Chard Consulting Ltd tagline, Ideas → Actions → Results:
Ideas → Can we use this meeting to explore options, challenge thinking and learn more?Actions → During this time can we make a decision? Can we allocate responsibilities?Results → Will this meeting help get things done? Will it build relationships and connections?
If any meeting request doesn’t meet this criterion, it may be wise to question its purpose, decline or, find a simple way to contribute outside of attendance.
Consider an organisation-wide communication approach that clarifies messages, audience and appropriate communication forums; then test meeting requests against this plan. There are many ways to get started - feel free to give us a call and we can suggest some options.
If this topic strikes a chord, you may enjoy a recent Harvard Business Review article of “How to get out of a meeting you know will waste your time!”
Comments