Last month I spent several days with a client company, helping them identify quality, profitability and cycle time improvements. All key executives and managers were interviewed, as well as groups of supervisors and hourly employees. The most widespread complaint had to do with the quality of meetings.
Many companies have the same problem.
Studies have shown that a typical manager spends the equivalent of 21 work-weeks in meetings each year. Common causes include lack of training for those who lead meetings, and lack of guidelines on how to maximize the use of participants' time and talent. Here are a few thoughts on how to improve the quality of your meetings. A meeting is a gathering of people for a specific business purpose. In order to be effective, you need a clearly established purpose or outcome, the right people, and a process for conducting the meeting effectively.