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Business Meetings are Painful but Can be Opportunities
Best Practices for Productive, Engaging Meetings
We all hate meetings, yet we keep going to them. Some of us, despite hating them, organize and lead them.
Although the pandemic has put the kibosh on many meetings, some live on as Zoom gatherings. Once the epidemic ends, meetings will be back, hopefully without a vengeance.
I’ve attended meetings charitably described as torture. These include pointless, agendaless, gatherings as well as meetings dominated by ignorant blowhards. Other meetings have featured diners, multi-taskers, and sleepers.
But meetings can be useful, or at least more tolerable. And every meeting attendee can contribute to this outcome.
Good Meetings Depend on a Good Organizer
Successful meetings reflect an effort by the organizer and discipline on the part of the attendees. Extraordinary meetings are ones where everyone contributes, which doesn’t necessarily mean talking, and ones where everyone is listening.
If you are the organizer, you are driving the bus. Making your meeting work depends on giving it structure.
