’9 Ways to Make Your Meetings Productive and Profitable’
August 9, 2009 12:52 pm Business Strategies, Career Development, Human Resources Issues, Management Strategies, Training, Workplace Issues, productivityGuest Contributor: Lorraine Pirihi
Some time ago I facilitated a VIP Planning Day for a small accounting practice. During the course of the day we reviewed the progress they had made since the Planning Day we had the year before. As we were reflecting on their achievements before planning the future, one of the partners made the comment on how crucial their weekly meetings were.
Originally when I first suggested they have regular weekly meetings, the same partner thought it was a waste of time as he was focused on how much time it cost to have everyone stop work for that hour.
Being an accountant he was always focused on chargeable hours and if they are all in a meeting for an hour they were potentially losing in excess of $1000.
However, he soon learned how beneficial these meetings were to the productivity and profit of their practice. Here’s what he said :
“We use this time to discuss and implement systems, streamline and improve systems and procedures.
We feel that this is where we can resolve issues, gaining different perspectives and ideas, everyone has constructive input, we also brainstorm different ideas and create our newsletter.
We find that our meetings enable everyone to communicate openly, productivity is higher as we plan the following week, which is more cost effective and obviously time efficient.
The bottom line is these meetings keep the team happy as they feel their ideas are appreciated. It increases productivity and because we are more effective we make more money.”
Having a productive meeting doesn’t happen by chance. You can follow these simple steps…
- Have an agenda circulated in advance to all attendees.
- Set timeframes for each item and have the most important one to discuss at the top.
- Only have those people who need to be there attend.
- Have a strong facilitator to keep the meeting on track.
- Start and finish on time.
- Have the meeting in a private area without distractions.
- All mobile phones to be switched off.
- Type up a summary of that meeting with who is to do what and by when and circulate it within 24 hours.
- Follow up to ensure action items are done
The Final Word:
It’s very simple really. Regardless of whether you have face-face or ‘virtual’ meetings (by telephone or Skype), follow the same steps to get real results and never waste your time (or money) again at unproductive meetings.
