Meetings can be a great way to exchange information and brainstorm creative solutions to business challenges. Or they can be time-consuming sinkholes, where your best people sit around like zombies, and nothing ever gets done.
If this sounds familiar, Dorie Clark, a marketing strategist who teaches at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, has some valuable advice to create productive meetings. In a The Huffington Post piece, Clark outlines seven ways to run productive meetings that actually get stuff done.
You and your staff need to get together to offer updates, look at general strategy or address a specific issue, but not all at the same time.
Sharply limit the time you spend on updates or they will not be productive meetings. Schedule periodic sessions to examine broader strategy. Feel free to “call for a targeted ‘ad hoc’ meeting to deal with a particular issue that warrants further discussion. (more…)
