The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings by ERIC MATSON

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The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetingsby ERIC MATSON

• Web Article Summary
• By
• Aaron Hauber
• Enlish 393 section 501

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Why Are Meetings Important?

• Meetings are the most universal -- and
  universally despised -- part of business life.
• Bad meeting make bad companies
• An organization's culture is perpetuated from its
  meetings.

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Jon Ryburg

• Recommends that companies double their meeting
  space if they have not done so in the past 20
  years.
• Reason More and more companies are team-based
  companies, and in team-based companies most work
  gets done in meetings.

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Sin 1

• People don't take meetings seriously. They
  arrive late, leave early, and spend most of their
  time doodling.
• Solution Make employees believe that meetings
  are real work.
• Make meetings uptime rather then downtime
• Have structured agendas, clear goals, paths that
  you're going to follow.

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Sin 2

• Meetings are too long. They should accomplish
  twice as much in half the time.
• Solution Realize how much long meetings cost
• Meetings should be no longer then 90 minutes
• Use technology to get more ideas out faster.
• Groupware allows more than one person to talk at
  a time.

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Sin 3

•  People wander off the topic. Participants spend
  more time digressing than discussing.
• Solution Follow agendas.
• Leave distractions in the parking lot
• Allow agendas to circulate around the office
  before meetings to permit modifications where
  needed.
• Establish voting methods

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Sin 4

• Nothing happens once the meeting ends. People
  don't convert decisions into action.
• Solution have someone take minutes
• Easy to distribute
• Outlines what was talked about at the meeting so
  that people can see what they are responsible for.

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Sin 5

• People don't tell the truth. There's plenty of
  conversation, but not much candor.
• Solution Anonymity
• Use groupware to allow ideas to be submitted
  anonymously.
• Allows passive employees to give ideas without
  being over powered by others.

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Sin 6

• Meetings are always missing important
  information, so they postpone critical
  decisions.
• Solution Turn meeting rooms into computer labs
• Allows employees to show and see real data

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Sin 7

• Meetings never get better. People make the same
  mistakes.
• Solution  Practice makes perfect.
• Observe what works and what doesn't and hold
  people accountable for change.

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Reference

• Matson, Eric. "The Seven Sins of Deadly
  Meetings." Fast Company 1996 n. pag. Web. 31
  Oct 2010. lthttp//www.fastcompany.com/magazine/ 0
  2/meetings.html?page0,3gt.