3367 Do you start your meetings on time?
The thought occurred to me this week I have probably wasted a month of my life waiting for meetings to start. If the meeting is at 10 a.m., I'm usually there at 9:55, hanging up my coat, picking out a chair, opening my notebook and settling in. Around 10:10, the chair says something like, "Well, we'll just wait another minute or two." I look around at the other 7 or 8 and think, "Don't we count?" One by one, the stragglers wander in, bustling, hustling and whispering. Finally, about 10:20, we're on our way.YOU can put a stop to this by just starting on time. Enabling procrastinators does not cure them. They will be late the next time, too. Changing the start time to 10:15 just means they will arrive at 10:30. Changing the day won't work either. They will have as many conflicts for Tuesday as they had for Wednesday.
Starting on time may not change them either, but isn't it worth a try?
time management
meetings
procrastination
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4 comments:
Great point..I run a meeting once a month and send an email that we will be starting promptly, but we always start 15 minutes later!!!
I will try harder
When I was promoted I had to run meetings almost everyday and in the beginning a lot of them come late but just the same I start it even they're not around. By doing so, it placed them in an embarassing situation that is why no one comes late anymore. I do the same when it's them calling for a meeting. I see to it that I am around at least 5 minutes before call time.
Cheers to your weekend!
The purpose of meetings is to fill the alloted time with the meeting, and at the end, have a communal consensus that a meeting was held. It is not to get something done.
Committees and meetings are not where the real work is done; more often in a hallway or over lunch.
Perhaps I used the term "meeting" vaguely. When I took a watercolor class at a community center, the same people were always 10-15 minutes late, and the instructor would stop and rehash what she had just told the class. I have a friend who thinks it's not important that she's often late to work because she is such an outstanding worker and gets more done. Unfortunately, there are many, who like you, think all the business gets done in the hall and over lunch. I call it schmoozing, networking, and good-old-boyism.
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