Neal Whitten's No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects

CHAPTER 33

How to Run an Effective Meeting

“Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Aren’t we ever going to get some real work done around this place?”

How many times have you heard this? Perhaps you’ve said it yourself a time or two. It has been my experience that most meetings are poorly planned and conducted and, frankly, waste a significant amount of time.

If a required participant cannot attend the meeting, then consider canceling the meeting rather than conducting two meetings

Start meetings precisely at 10 minutes after the hour.

Local Meetings

Let’s look at a short list of guidelines for local meetings (where all participants are physically present in a single room) that can correct this common, but pervasive problem:

• Plan the meeting ...