Running Effective Meetings For Dummies

Chapter 7

Determining if You Even Need a Meeting

IN THIS CHAPTER

Introducing the idea that not all meetings should be meetings

Asking the right questions

Learning when to call a meeting

We’re guessing that many of you have experienced times when you left a meeting thinking, “I’ve just lost an hour of my life that I’ll never get back.” In fact, Joe just had one of those experiences yesterday. He was invited (voluntold) to attend a meeting where curriculum changes were to be discussed for an academic program that he supports. As the meeting leader called the meeting to order, they announced that one of the faculty would be sharing their insights into the proposed changes. This person then proceeded to discuss the merits of the proposed changes for the next 50 minutes. The meeting leader then said something like, “Well, it looks like we’re about out of time. Any last second thoughts?” No one piped in because everyone was ready to leave (in other words, checked out 30 minutes ago).

This is a prime example of a meeting that never should have been a meeting in the first place. There was no interaction. There was no collaboration. It was just a nearly hour-long monologue with one person ...