Improve Your Meetings With This Simple Tool

OK, I think we all agree that meetings have their place. Sometimes there's just no substitute for having all parties around the conference table discussing the subject at hand.

I think we can also all agree that too many meetings are a complete waste of time, and they don't meet their objectives -- even supposing they have an objective, which is sometimes doubtful.

It's no accident that when I wrote my business fable "The Hidden Profit Center", the first chapter dealt with a meeting that went completely out of control and cost a great deal of money. I feel strongly about the high cost of poorly run meetings, and I'm always looking for new ideas, techniques and methods to make them more effective. Here's one worth trying.

Make a habit of soliciting input from all participants after your meetings about the meeting itself. You're not asking their opinion about any of the actual topics, but about how useful the meeting was. You want to find out whether people felt the objective was met; whether they knew more about the subject after the meeting; what aspects of the meeting did not satisfy them; whether they have suggestions to improve future meetings, and anything else that seems appropriate.

Create a template of questions that are common to all YOUR meetings, and make a practice of distributing the form afterwards for feedback. You can send it by e-mail to all participants as a matter of course, or simply distribute it in paper form at the end of the meeting itself. If you feel it would elicit more information, you can let people comment anonymously, although having them take ownership in their comments is more valuable.

Use the survey for every meeting you hold, whether it's with your own team, or colleagues and others around the company. When people realize they'll be asked to comment, it gives them an extra reason to pay attention, and it can be a valuable steps towards making meetings worthy of the time and effort they consume.

Helen Wilkie is a professional keynote speaker, workshop leader and author specializing in applied communication in the workplace. Visit her website at http://www.mhwcom.com Subscribe to Helen's free monthly e-zine, "Communi-keys", and get your free 40-page e-book, 23 ideas you can use RIGHT NOW to communicate and succeed in your business career!

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