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Have you ever been involved in a process improvement or redesign effort that didn't require a meeting? Neither have I. Meetings are a necessary mechanism for exchanging information, confirming progress, creatively developing deliverables or solutions, making decisions, and growing as a team. In fact, a recent survey of corporate, government, defense, education and non-profit sectors show that we spend anywhere from 25% to 50% of our time in meetings (depending on our role and responsibilities). So why not apply some of our BPM know-how to meetings
But where does one start when attempting to improve the meeting process? We asked over 200 business professionals in various industries for their insight into the top causes of meeting ineffectiveness. Their responses echo my own experience. Let's take a look at the top three constraints to successful meetings and what we can do to minimize them.
The largest factor contributing to ineffective meetings was lack of good meeting controls. People felt frustrated that non-productive behaviors such as going off on tangents, multi-tasking during the meeting, and side-bar conversations were allowed to occur. They indicated that late arrivals were allowed to negatively impact progress. And dominating participants were frequently not managed and thus wound up dictating the course of discussion. As leaders in the change effort, how can we better control meetings to ensure time is well spent and our goals get met?
<u>Establish Your Role as Facilitator.</u> This role holds the key to making project meetings effective. The facilitator is the one who guides the meeting process
Once your role is firmly established with the team, they will expect you to intervene in the meeting process to keep it on track and productive. Don't disappoint them. Have the courage to step in when things start to veer off-track.
<u>Ask for Tangible Action.</u> To help attendees better prepare for significant meetings, ask them to do some tangible piece of work in advance. It may be as simple as ranking some items or as complex as listing the steps in their business process. Request this work be submitted in advance of the meeting so it can be compiled and printed for use in the meeting.
<u>Start Meetings 10 Minutes Late.</u> As meeting facilitators, we often get caught in the meeting machine
== Conclusion ==
Meetings provide a means for collaborative thinking, discussion, and deliberation that is invaluable in getting project work done. Sadly, most of the meetings we've attended fall short of their potential. We've seen meetings held without a purpose or agenda. Key agreements that went undocumented. Critical follow-up tasks that disappeared only to be reincarnated at later meetings, reassigned and lost again. Uncertainty over decision-making processes and authority and a host of other ineffective practices. And the scariest part is that all of these occurred while a team was trying to improve other business processes. As BPM experts, let's take the opportunity to practice what we preach and apply BPM to Be Productive in Meetings.
<{{references }} == Tools ==Timeanddate.com will quickly give you an idea of what time it is for your global meeting locations.https:/>/www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/switzerland/zurich
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