After your meeting is over does everyone simply go back to what they were doing before the meeting as if nothing had just taken place?

We are busy people, and new ideas, initiatives, changes and decisions that come out of a meeting often fail to get implemented.

One of the reasons we hate meetings is because nothing changes. All that time. All that energy. The many discussions. The haggling. The compromises.

And then…

Nothing happens.

The unspoken message is that the effort was a waste of time.

Find out what follow-up can do for your meeting.

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

There is a lot of knowledge, experience and skills in the room when you gather the team for a meeting.

Why then do so many of us leave it all untapped by doing all the talking ourselves?

In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss the most valuable resource a leader has… their staff.

Oddly enough our silly leadership paradigms lead us to believe that we must know more than everyone on the team if we have the position of leader. Therefore, a meeting must where I gather the team to listen to me.

FAIL.

Meetings take off, go somewhere, get things done, discover new opportunities, solve intractable problems, and build passionate cohesiveness when everyone on the team participates.

An important mentor of mine kept a plaque on his desk that read, “On this team everyone plays.”

Find out what participation can do for your meeting.

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

Some issues come up in meetings week after week. The discussion picks up where it left off and no resolution or decision ever gets made.

And again you want to kill yourself (or at least the leader). Because again you are not busy doing the many important tasks waiting for you at your desk in order to be at this meeting. This meeting that is rehashing and rethinking and repeating what has been discussed on many previous occasions.

Open discussions are a good thing. Hearing all sides to a complex issue is a good thing. Playing out various scenarios is, yes, a good thing.

But when these thinking exercises have served their purpose, there needs to be movement toward a decision, toward a plan, or toward an clearly identified outcome.

We waste our own and everyone else’s time when we discuss for discussion’s sake. We must discuss for the sake of making the best possible decision. We must think together for the sake of achieving the optimum plan of action.

We hate meetings when they are missing a clear trajectory toward particular decisions and concrete action.

Find out what a simple set of expected outcomes can do for your meeting.

Listen in.

We have a tool that can help. Check out our Meeting Planner, a simple, professional workbook for planning meetings that focus discussions, increase team buy-in, and get things done. (Click here for more information.)

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

Don’t do it! Come back in off the ledge! Think of the kids. It’s not worth jumping.

Leader monologues, dominating whiners, lost time to secondary issues, and meetings that go on forever make us want to kill ourselves sometimes.

In this week’s discussion, Claudia and I look at what a waste of time most people feel meetings are.

We’ve got a lot to do, and meetings feel like a mind-numbing and meaningless interruption. We are somehow responsible for indulging our leader’s sense of self-importance by listening to them ramble on and on.

Or what about the complainers who take up half the meeting whining about their unfair parking spot, the stench of burnt popcorn in the lunch room, or the poor attitude in the mail room?!

It doesn’t need to be this way. Find out what a simple agenda can do for your meeting.

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

How can an opportunity so important be so regularly squandered?

Boring, unplanned, endless and usually pointless, meetings have become a stereotypical waste of time and resources.

Sometimes it’s an insecure leader who, any time someone else begins to speak, hurriedly repeats everything they just said because obviously if there is a question, objection or different perspective, further elaboration on their part is needed.

Sometimes it is watching the valuable time inadvertently spent discussing minutiae or pet peeves while the most important issues get squeezed into the last five minutes.

We feel our time is being unfairly wasted by those who will eventually be holding us accountable for what we weren’t able to accomplish because we were tied up in the meeting they called.

Join Claudia and I as we launch a new discussion series on Why We Hate Meetings. Not only will we be poking fun at the silly ways we waste these regular gatherings, but we will offer simple tips for bringing focus, direction, participation and results to your meetings.

Find out how easily a few adjustments can turn this around for the meetings you lead.

Why We Hate Meetings
Week #1: Death by Drivel
Week #2: Not Guided by an Agenda
Week #3: Not Focused toward Outcomes
Week #4: Not Resourced by Participation
Week #5: Not Acted On through Follow-Up

Don’t forget to check out our Meeting Planner. A simple workbook for planning meetings that make a difference!

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.