I hear about it all the time.

Meetings with no clearly defined objective.  No resolution of critical issues.  No actionable outcomes.  No impact.

Meetings that simply don’t need to happen.

I know executives that spend (or waste) most of their day going from meeting…to meeting…to meeting…to meeting.  Big company bureaucracy can bog down even the best, well intended leader in a cycle of encounters that aren’t core to the performance of their team or the organization.

Far too many companies disguise meeting chaos as healthy collaboration.

Lost control of your calendar?  Tied up in meetings until the 3rd week in July?

The Death by Meeting Quiz (and tools) might help provide some awareness as to the effectiveness of your own meetings.

I used to hate internal company meetings.

Now I actually look forward to them knowing full well they will favorably impact the business.

In our quarterly strategic planning session we used NextUp to keep the meeting on task and on time.  It worked.

{Sidebar:  Lynn speaks very fast which is a big plus in our ability to beat the clock}

E.ggtimer is another fun little tool to help you stay on time and task (have fun using it the next time you are on the receiving end of a sales call).

Knowing the key is getting meaningful work done daily you could also try iDoneThis.  A great little accountability tool to make certain you are never saying to yourself, “it is 4 pm and I have no idea what I accomplished today…other than sitting in meetings.”

We are all time poor, stretched thin and being asked to do more with less.

We all need to make time spent in meetings more productive.  These questions help.

1. Why are we meeting?

2. What is going to change as a result of this meeting?

3. What is the lost opportunity if we don’t meet (or I don’t attend)?

4. What work needs to happen before the meeting to maximize productivity?

5.  What key decisions will be made in the room?

Perhaps the meeting about the meeting (we have all been there) will be a step in the right direction to make sure future meetings are more productive or avoided all together.