The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings

1
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings

• Author Eric Matson
• Presenter Brian Hodges

2
Meetings

• Meetings are the most universally despised part
  of business life
• Bad meetings make bad companies
• Bad meetings are a source of negative messages
  about the company
• Meetings are a place where an organizations
  culture perpetuates itself

3
Techniques to Make Meetings More Productive

• Adopt the mind-set that meetings are real work
• Reduce the length of meetings
• Plan and stick to the agenda
• Convert plans to action
• Embrace the idea of anonymity
• Get data into meeting rooms
• Practice meetings in order to get better

4
Sin 1 People dont take meetings
seriouslySalvation Adopt the mind-set the
meetings are real work

• Meetings over, lets get back to work is the
  mortal enemy of good meetings
• Have to make meetings uptime rather than downtime
• Have the employees take notes

5
Sin 2 Meetings are too longSalvation Time is
money

• Meetings should not last longer than 90 minutes
• Think about adopting technological equipment to
  increase productivity
• Technology can also keep the time of meetings at
  a minimum

6
Sin 3 People wander off the topicSalvation
Stick to the agenda

• Take the agenda seriously
• Everything should be mapped out meetings key
  topics, expected outcomes, etc
• Specify the meetings decision-making style
• Keep the meetings focused without stifling
  creativity

7
Sin 4 People dont convert decisions into
actionSalvation Convert from meeting to
doing

• People leave meetings views on what happened or
  whats supposed to happen next
• Focus on the creation of shared documents that
  lead to action

8
Sin 5 People dont tell the truthSalvation
Embrace anonymity

• People simply do not speak their minds in
  meetings
• Adopt computer-based systems that enable people
  to express opinions without having them reveal
  their identity
• Problem People not getting credit for their
  ideas

9
Sin 6 Meetings are missing important
informationSalvation Get data into meeting
rooms

• Some meeting rooms are out of the information
  flow
• This tends to postpone critical decisions
• Solution store information from past
  projects/meetings so that you can continue to the
  next matter at hand

10
Sin 7 Meetings never get betterSalvation
Practice makes perfect

• Can only get better if you commit to it and aim
  high
• Cannot have people making the same mistakes
• Keep a record of what went right and what went
  wrong

11
Conclusion

• Meetings should be a place where employees can
  express their ideas and the organization can be
  productive at the same time
• Are there any questions?