How often is it that you get invited to a meeting that goes on and on and on. You get there and there is no formal agenda, the other attendees are late, some don’t know why they have been invited, there is no real leader of the meeting and an hour or so later you leave with no real outcomes and you are left wondering what that was all about.
Well i think there should be a different approach – the 30 minute meeting. In fact, if it can be shorter, thats even better.
If someone wants to have a meeting with me, i generally allocate 30 min to the meeting and ensure that there is another one right after it – saves me going over. In the meeting i usually like the person who has called the meeting to have an agenda and a clear outcome they want from the meeting. I am not a big fan of presentations, i just want to know the facts. Long power point presentations may impress some but i generally skip ahead if given the presentation on paper.
I tend to find it a bit “sucky” when people present whizz bang high tech presentations – as it usually means they have spent more time moving pixels around the screen than actually thinking about what it is they are trying to say.
Finally, i always try to make a decision by the end of the meeting. I think that it is important that people have clear direction and can get on with it. Now these decisions are not always right and sometimes are driven by gut feel more than anything. However i will take 7 or 8 out of 10 decisions being right any day.
