If there is one universal truth about today’s business world, it is that the overwhelming majority of people hate meetings. Not only are meetings seen as a waste of time, they can be difficult to organize, divisive and incredibly boring. While there is no magic formula in place to make meetings fun, there are a few things you can do to help lessen the dread that most people have for them.
In every office there are tiers of people: managers, supervisors and workers. This caste system is most apparent in meetings. Depending on the work environment you have, meetings can get absolutely nasty, with groups of people taking sides, hurling insults and simply acting unprofessional. If you want meetings to actually accomplish something, you need to set up strict rules of decorum that have penalties if broken. If someone is forced to sit through a meeting, then their opinions and feedback should be taken seriously and not belittled or mocked. The worst feeling any business professional can have at work is to have their thoughts stomped on by a superior in front of all of their peers. You will notice a huge uptick in productivity and moral if you make meetings a “respect zone.”
Since we are talking about efficient meeting strategies, the one change that most people would make to their current situation would be to significantly reduce the number of meetings they have each day. Some offices attempt to have three hours or more of meetings each day, even during their busiest season. Phones go unanswered, messages pile up, email gets hopelessly backlogged and then these same people are condemned when they don’t seem to get anything done. Try to explore alternatives to meetings. Try to compact everything you were planning to talk about in your meeting as much as possible. The less time you spend talking about work and sales goals, the more time you can spend meeting them.
If you can afford the extra cost, try to provide an incentive for prompt meeting attendance. If you can provide a fresh pot of coffee and a plate of muffins or Danish, you will notice that people will run to meetings and they might actually seem happy to be in one. It serves as a great moral boost and quietly communicates to your people that you understand that meetings aren’t a lot of fun but we, as a company, are trying to make things a little more palatable to you. You would be surprised what a plate of muffins can do.
If meetings are scheduled at the end of the day or at the beginning, have your meeting room set up so that folks can teleconference from home. We all have high speed connections these days and most of us own microphones and webcams. Set up a secure server so that your people can attend the meeting from a remote location. Of course, you might want to emphasize that they won’t be receiving any refreshments, but having remote meeting attendance available will likely help office moral more than anything.
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