by John J. Walters
What was the worst meeting you ever attended? For most people, this is a difficult question, because the competition is fierce. I went searching for common meeting complaints this morning, and I found a few decent articles written by people complaining about various behaviors that should be avoided at all costs.
Of course, everyone will have their pet peeves and there will always be professional cynics. You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but with a little preparation you can organize a decent meeting that won’t bore everyone, especially if you are careful only to schedule one only when it really needs to take place and when you invite only the people who will have relevant input.
But sometimes a decent meeting can turn into a train wreck despite the best preparation. How? We’re all familiar with “that guy†who commits a meeting faux pas that derails everything, so I figured I’d post a couple links to help you avoid turning into him by accident.
First, here’s a very short list of a few things to avoid at all costs. It says it’s a “top five†list but only lists four things. Oh well.
CNN also has a pretty decent piece with ten things that will either make you look bad during a meeting or will distract everyone else from the task at hand. It boils down to being prepared, acting professional, and staying on topic. Good advice in general, really.
Finally, I stumbled across an interesting role-playing activity to help meeting participants and team members to analyze their own behaviors and get them thinking about how to improve their interactions. Activities like these can easily fall into the category of “time wasters†if they’re poorly executed, but can just as easily be valuable introductions and ice-breakers for both new and established teams.
The important thing to remember is that most people don’t want to be there, just like you. So if you’ve been roped into a meeting that you don’t want to attend, try not to make it worse for everyone else with poor behavior. And, as always, doing your homework beforehand and coming ready to be productive is the key to doing your part for an effective meeting. You might not be able to make things perfect, but at least you can avoid making things worse quite easily.