How to have a productive meeting

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Have you ever sat in a meeting and thought to yourself, “This could have been an email” while rolling your eyes internally?

We’ve all been there at one point or another. There seems to be an overdependence on meetings lately. It’s common in workplace culture that meetings are the norm, and the knee-jerk reaction when it’s time to share news or take care of something that affects multiple people is to have a meeting.

The proliferation of meetings leaves us overscheduled, with less time to really do our work. So how do you know if having a meeting is necessary? Here are some tactics to help you decide.

First, ask yourself if you have all the information you need to hold the meeting. If you don’t have all your materials, a meeting may be premature.

Next, decide if this meeting is about discussion and collaboration or delegation and calendaring. If it’s a leader handing out tasks to individuals, you don’t need to involve everyone.

Then, figure out if it’s critical that you’re all on the same page. If the answer is no, this may be better handled with a series of individual conversations.

And last, consider if the meeting directly serves each attendee’s ability to make their most significant impact.

By asking these questions, you’ll avoid unnecessary meetings and help people stay focused on doing their most valuable work.

Determining whether a meeting is necessary from Leading Productive Meetings by Dave Crenshaw


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