If Life Is Like A Bowl of Cherries Why Do Business Meetings Still Exist ?

Business meetings come with the territory when you’re a manager. Are meetings fun to attend? If you ask those that work for you, they’re liable to tell you that it’s just another perk that comes with your job. Time spent at a meeting is often viewed by your subordinates as another way that you “get out of working for a living”. If you’re a manager, you probably have a very different view of them.

Meetings have never been one of my favorite things to do. Too often, I left a business meeting thinking about how much I wasn’t able to accomplish,  because I had to devote valuable work time to another mandatory meeting. But, I don’t think I’m the only one who has ever felt that way. I know, from my own experience, that many of the participants of the meetings I’ve attended felt the same way that I did.

Michael Begeman of 3M seems to agree with they way I’ve felt about business meetings too. He says,  “Here’s my mental image of what happens at most business meetings: You could take the people out and replace them with radios blaring at each other, and you would not have changed very much. That’s what most meetings are like. People wait for the person who’s speaking to take a breath, so they can jump into the empty space and talk. The quality of communication in most meetings is roughly comparable to the quality of the arguments that you used to have with your 10-year-old brother.”

Business Meeting Tip #1: How to save money on coffee and donuts 

If you’re not interested in hearing the opinions of everyone who you’ve invited to the business meeting, cross off the names of those you don’t want and opinion from. Seriously,  if you don’t value their opinion, then why invite them? Don’t invite people to a meeting if you’re going to make them think that the coffee and donuts are more interesting to you, than they are. Besides less people = savings $$$ on coffee and donuts.

Business Meeting Tip #2: Stay on course or they’re liable to jump ship 

Have you ever attended a meeting and wondered what how the discussion got off topic and stayed there? Conducting a productive business meeting requires a host that can keep the meeting participants “on topic”. Valuable time is wasted at meetings where the host allows participants to go off on tangents for an extended period of time during a meeting. If you are hosting a meeting and you let participants wander off topic for too long, it won’t be long before the room sounds like a bunch of 5th graders whose teacher just left the room. Stay in command, if you’re a meeting host and direct the ship in the direction it’s supposed to go and everyone will enjoy the smooth sailing. 

Business Meeting Tip #3: Meetings are not like parties, you need a good reason for them 

If you’ve decided to host a meeting, make sure you have a good reason for it. Having a meeting just because it’s the third Thursday of the month is not a good reason. It may be easier to do that from a scheduling point of view, but are the meeting topics worth the time that your managers will spent attending them? Effective managers are dedicated to doing their job, which leaves little time for them to devote to 2 hour meetings. If you’re thinking that’s not a problem for my managers, then I should have worked for you! :) Seriously, if you’re holding a meeting based solely on the fact that it’s easier from a scheduling point of view, ask yourself “do I really need a meeting to get these questions answered, or can I find out what I want to know through email and/or a phone call (s).

Business Meeting Tip #4: Business class seating isn’t limited to the airlines

Seating has become a popular topic on the net, when it comes to business meetings. Jim Stroud of Microsoft says that you should be prepared to play musical chairs at your next meeting. Business Week thinks that you should be aware of where you sit at your next business meeting too. Personally, I never consciously thought about where I sat at business meetings, but after reading the articles on Jim’s site and on Business Week, I chose my seat wisely. If I’d been at a business meeting in Japan, where to sit would have been a no-brainer. They let you know where to sit and when. They’ll also tell you what color pen to write with, when to drink, and what kind of gift you should bring to the host of the meeting.

Business Meeting Tip #5:  Meetings are a great time to encourage “thinking outside the box”

Do people look forward to attending meetings at your company? If not, you might want to try what Michael Begeman does. “I’m famous around here for my bag of meeting toys. It comes in handy. Last summer, for example, I was working with a group of senior executives. The first thing I did when I started off the meeting was to give everybody two toys: a Meeting Network mouse pad and a Meeting Network squeeze ball. The executives played with this stuff throughout the meeting. It was great: One person would say something that another person didn’t like, and the second person would throw a ball across the table. Everyone at the meeting had lots of fun.”