Boring Meetings Suck

Whether I’m the Keynote Speaker on Boring Meetings or not, many people know that I’m NOT a fan of Boring Meetings that suck the life out of an organization. While my recommendations are not as common as these mentioned, I saw this post, and with permission of DeDe, shared it here. At least partially a different spin on some ideas that are shared over and over and over again.

Without a doubt, face-to-face meetings are necessary to get things done in corporate America. However, most individuals when polled, state their meetings are ineffective, a waste of time and…just down right boring. But they don’t have to be!

Meetings done right can:

• Create positive energy
• Increase participant interactions
• Improve knowledge sharing and
• Allow for much needed networking.

Sure Signs of Boring Meetings

Sign #1: People arrive late, leave early, and spend most of their time doodling.

If you are trying to hold a meeting, it is important that people respect your time and you respect theirs. If they are zoned out at the meeting most likely they are not engaged in the content OR don’t really understand why they are there. So…make sure the right people are in the right meeting at the right time. Formulate and circulate the agenda ahead of time and be sure to start and end on time. Pepper your participants with questions and solicit their opinions. Hire a great keynote speaker or event emcee to keep everyone pumped and present.

Sign #2: The meeting is way, way too long. 

Remember that time is money and for every moment your people are not engaged and learning, is a moment wasted. Keep the meetings on message with content that is riveting. The famous Guy Kawasaki once said “if you can’t say it in 10 slides, your message is too long.”

Sign #3: Everyone wanders and you wonder what happened. 

When you have no real purpose to your meeting and people have side conversations or talk over each other, you are in real trouble. Your meeting participants don’t really know why they are there, so they make the most of their time. At the end of the meeting you look over the things you hoped to accomplish and realize decisions were not made or the training milestones were not accomplished. When the speaker, emcee or facilitator does not take command, things happen. Hire someone who has a plan and can assist you in meeting your corporate objectives.

Sign #4: The meetings never gets any better.

If you are like me, most of your meetings repeat either weekly, monthly or yearly. And if you are bold, like me, you give honest feedback to the meeting organizer about ways to improve the event; including some of the items listed above. When the organizer listens intently and you think things are going to change, you get excited and engaged. But when you go to meeting after meeting and all your ideas go unused, you check out. This is a telltale way to drive attendees away.

Sign #5: No one is networking. 

When you come together for a small meeting or large, it is important that people feel free to network before or after the event. If they are not getting to know each other better, something is very wrong OR you are not creating a welcoming, engaging environment in which to get to know each other better.

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And if you need my help . . .

Jon Petz Can Fix Your Meetings

Imagine how much more you could accomplish if your meetings were vehicles for innovation, motivation and decision-making! Jon Petz can help you and your organization discover meeting techniques for focused, results-driven meetings and how to take charge of meetings that are wasting employees’ time and talent.

For more information, be sure to check out Jon’s Boring Meetings Suck website and order his book with the same title.