Meetings tend to fill our life as employees and become even worse when you enter the managerial stage, with some people measuring success by the time they spend in meetings.

Personally I think that a meeting lasting more than 30 minutes is a loss of time. We can argue for hours if 30 minutes is an amount of time too short but whatever is the amount of time you set, you should define an end and a purpose for your time together.

Because there are meetings and “gatherings” where the first type ends up with a decision and the second ranging from workshops to team alignments. And if we call them the right way they can last all the time you want, but if we talk about MEETINGS, they should be quick and effective.

It happens very often that people pass their time in the same “meeting” for many reasons:

1. People tend to arrive in the meeting without preparation: if you want to make every minute count, force participants to arrive prepared with ideas and options already validated
2. People lose attention during time: the longer the meeting the worst the situation, bringing to superficial evaluations and distracted participation
3. People tend to deviate from meeting objectives if not correctly guided.

These are only some of the possible reasons but as a manager you have to avoid at all cost at least those.

How to do it?

1. Have an agenda and stick to it. And remember, this is valid also in the “virtual” environment. This will make all people know when and how the topics will be discussed
2. Prepare people before meeting in order to discuss something “pre-chewed” by everyone. This also has the great advantage to make everyone feel comfortable because of the achieved awareness on the theme
3. Keep time within a reasonable timeframe for each point (not all deserve the same duration) and as the end of each one is approaching, try to bring people to a decision. After that, put it in the minutes of meeting with clear responsibilities and then follow up at next occasion
4. Be clear in advance on which kind of “gathering” participants are required to be in: is it a decision meeting? A brainstorming?
5. Invite only the people that are needed: this is key to keep the attention and the work flowing correctly
6. If part of the required people is not attending, move it to another slot. A meeting without the correct decision makers is the start of being non-responsible

What are your techniques to handle meetings?