To meet or not to meet
Anyone who’s been in a business setting for any length of time knows that meetings can quickly overwhelm a calendar. For me, today happens to be a light day for meetings, at least the formal scheduled ones. The amount of work done is exponentially greater as a result. Meetings serve one of three purposes: inform, act or decide.
Inform - the most common and generally the hardest to measure value. If I own the meeting, my goal should be to make sure the intentions of the meeting are clear in order to limit and compel those that have an interest to attend.
Act - a working meeting where value is measure in completion of tasks
Decide - all meetings involve decision making at some level, but a meeting established for the purpose of making a specific decision requires substantial planning: making sure the correct information is presented, that the decision request is clear, that those making the decision are present and it’s clear who owns the decision. The value of these meetings are measured by clarity of the decisions.
My goal is to make my meetings matter. Whether I facilitate or attend, be prepared, be clear, be decisive.