Meetings can be effective ways of sharing information or reaching a decision. However, ineffectively run, they can swallow up your time without giving much benefit. Just as jobs have a cost, meetings have a cost; not only for you but for all who attend. After any meeting ask yourself, “was my contribution worth my investment?”
Here are some tips for running meetings in the most effective way possible:
1. Hold meetings when trigger events occur
Many regular meetings are little more than a case of doing something because it’s the “correct” way to do things or it’s always been done that way. The management team feels it is a “good thing” to communicate, but are unclear what they would like to communicate. Time is alloted for discussion and discussion expands to fill the time.
It is more effective to hold meetings when specific events show them to be necessary. For example, a deliverable is delayed by two weeks. How does this effect the overall timing of the project and what steps can be taken to keep the whole thing on track.
By scheduling meetings to occur on trigger events, you ensure time is invested in the solution of a problem, only when the problem occurs.
2. Use the Agenda Effectively
The agenda is effectively the to-do list for the meeting. It shows the aim and discussion points in priority order.
Using an agenda focuses the meeting, and provides a guide for keeping discussion on-track. Circulating the agenda sufficiently in advance, allows people to prepare for the meeting so it isn’t held up for lack of information.
3. Setting the time of the meeting
You can schedule the meeting to take advantage of the attendees:
- Where people tend to waffle excessively, you can schedule the meeting just before lunch or going home, giving participants an incentive to keep things brief.
- Where people are time conscious, write the cost per minute of the meeting on a flip chart can have a focusing effect.
- Always start meetings on time. When meetings start late, you are in effect penalizing all those who arrived on time. Start without the late-comers.
- If you’re have a problem with people consistently showing up late, start a meeting at an unusual time, say19 minutes past the hour. This can improve punctuality.
4. Other Useful Techniques
- Invite the minimum number of attendees needed to a meeting. The more people in attendance, the more discussion there will be. Inviting people who are not needed wastes their time.
- Make sure that decisions made at a previous meeting have been acted on. This ensures that the meeting will not just be seen as a ‘talking-shop’.
- At the end of the meeting, prepare minutes summarizing the points discussed and defining action steps on the decisions. This ensures everyone understands what has been decided and who will do what.
Meetings can be effective methods for reaching decisions. They can also be huge time wasters. When you invest time in a meeting, you should expect a sufficiently large pay-back to justify the investment.
译文:
四种让你有效主持会议的方法
会议是一种让人们有效传达信息和做出决策的方式。 然而一场效率低的会议除了浪费大家的时间，我们从中得不到任何好处。我们从工作中可以得到一定的报酬，会议也一样，不光是你，所有出席会议的人都应从中得到点什么。每次开会之后你都应该自问一句，“我对这次会议的贡献和付出成正比吗？
以下这些建议可以帮助你有效的主持一场会议：
1. 在有突发事件发生的时候举行会议
因为是按照“正确的方法”在做或因为大家一直以来都是这么做的，所以很多常规性会议就像例行公事一样。管理者觉得交流是一种“很好的方法”，但他们又不懂究竟该交流些什么。因此就把会议时间分配下去让大家做自由讨论，这些讨论就理所当然的占用了大部分的会议时间。
当出现特殊事件必须要开会的时候才开会，这样会比较有效率。例如，一个必须交付的项目却已推迟了两个星期还未交付。这时开会就应讨论一下这个问题会不会影响到整个工程的进度，该怎样做才能保证工程正常运行。
在有紧急事件发生的时候开会，你必须保证会议有足够的时间来解决问题，记住，仅仅是在问题产生的时候。
2. 有效利用好议事日程
议事日程其实就是一张记录会议将讨论的事件的清单。议事日程按先后顺序排好了会议的目标和需要讨论的问题。
议事日程可以使会议变得紧凑，同时能保证大家讨论时不跑题。提前将议事日程发给职员，让他们有时间去准备，就不会因为对内容不了解而耽误会议进程了。
3. 合理安排会议时间
掌握会议出席者的行程信息来安排会议时间：
- 如果职员们喜欢开会时东拉西扯，你就把会议时间安排在午饭前或者下班之前，这样就能使得那些与会人员尽量简洁明了的发表自己的意见。
- 如果人们很有时间观念的话，你就把开会每分钟花掉的钱写在小黑板上，这样就会产生积极的效果。
- 开会一定要准时。如果延迟开会的话，对那些准时到会的人是很不公平的。要是有人没有准时到会，忽略那些迟到的人照常准时开会。
- 如果有人总是迟到的话，你就把开会时间定在一个不寻常的点，例如整点过19分开会。这样就能让与会人员都准时到会了。
4. 其他有用的技巧
- 尽量精简与会人员。开会的人越多，讨论的也就越多。邀请那些珍惜时间的人来开会。
- 确保上次会议上做出的决议已经得到施行。这就保证了会议不是一个“清谈俱乐部”。
- 会议结束前留出几分钟总结会上讨论的内容并部署会后工作。这就保证了每个人都能明白会议里有些什么决策，他们该做些什么。
会议一种是做出决议的有效方式，同时也是一个吞噬时间的恶魔。当你花时间去开会的时候，你肯定希望通过它来达到某种目的来实现时间的价值。