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Improving the quality of your
time
Using waiting time effectively
Getting the most out of meetings
Meetings can be effective ways of sharing information or reaching a decision. They can,
however, be ineffectively run in a way that swallows up your time without giving a sufficient
benefit.
Just as jobs that you do have a cost, the meetings that you attend have a cost, not only of
your time but also that of the other attendees. You should ask yourself whether the benefit of
the meeting has been worth the time invested in both the meeting and the preparation for it.
Was your contribution worth your investment?
This section explains how to run a meeting in the most effective way possible, and then how to
get the most out of meetings that you attend.
Running Meetings
This section gives a series of recommendations that should help you to run effective meetings:
1. Hold meetings only when trigger events occur
Regular meetings are often little more than a security blanket, where the convenor feels
vaguely that 'it is a good thing to communicate' with only vague ideas what to communicate
about. Time is routinely made available for discussion, so discussion will expand to fill it
whether this is cost-effective or not.
In many cases it is much more effective to agree to hold meetings only when specific
trigger events show them to be necessary. As an example, a manager may
propose a meeting when he or she projects that resource difficulties may be encountered, and
needs a decision on how to handle this.
By scheduling meetings to occur on trigger events, you can ensures that time is invested in
the solution of a problem only when it is needed.
2. Use the Agenda Effectively
The agenda of the meeting shows the aim of the meeting, and points of
discussion in priority order - effectively it is a To Do List for the meeting.
Using an agenda helps to focus the meeting, stopping it drifting off-topic. If you circulate it
sufficiently far in advance, it allows people to prepare fully for the meeting so the meeting does
not stall for lack of information.
Where many people are to attend the meeting, it may be beneficial for a small expert
subcommittee to meet to prepare the agenda.
3. Setting the time of the meeting
You can usefully change the timing of the meeting depending on the habits of the attendees:
- Where people tend to waffle excessively, you can schedule the meeting just before lunch
or going home. This gives people an incentive to be brief
- Alternatively where other people are time conscious, writing the cost per minute of the
meeting on a flip chart can have a focusing effect.
- Where people tend to turn up late, start a meeting at an unusual time, e.g. 19 minutes
past the hour. This seems to improve punctuality.
- If possible, ensure that the meeting starts on time - where it starts late, time of all the
attendees is being wasted waiting for the start. If late-comers are not critically needed, start
without them.
4. Other Useful Techniques
These points can also improve the effectiveness of a meeting:
- You should only bring the minimum number of attendees to a meeting - the more people
are present, the more will want to air their views. Similarly, bringing people who are not
needed to a meeting wastes their time.
- Ensure that decisions taken at previous meetings have been acted on. This ensures that
the meeting will not just be seen as a 'talking-shop'.
- At the end of the meeting, summarise the points discussed, and make an action plan out
of the decisions taken. This ensures that everyone understands what has been decided, and
who will do what.
Attending Meetings
When you attend a meeting, ensure that you do not waste other people's time. To this end,
you should be:
- on time, and present only if needed
- well prepared and briefed on your contribution
- attentive to the discussion so that your contribution does not repeat someone else's
- involved in the discussion
- and brief, relevant, focussed and courteous in your interventions
Summary
Meetings can be effective ways of reaching decisions, however they can also be huge wastes
of time. When you invest time in a meeting, you should expect a sufficiently large pay-back to
justify that investment.
If you are running a meeting, use an agenda to focus discussion. Use the time set for the
meeting as a tool for getting around bad habits of attendees if necessary. Summarising the
meeting with an action plan ensures that everyone knows what has been decided.
If you are attending a meeting, ensure that you respect the time of other attendees by being
well prepared, attentive and concise.
Improving the quality of your
time
Using waiting time effectively
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