All you need is... an agenda?

Many times I have heard the statement that “the more meetings, the less time for work”. I have to admit that I have said it aloud many times as well. Yet, I’m still organizing meetings and I’m still participating in many of them. And still sometimes it happens that I’ve got this sad feeling that a meeting I’ve just had was nothing more than the waste of time of all people who attended it.

“More meetings mean less time for work”. Is it true? Sometimes yes. When? In situations when you don’t see any progress after a meeting. When you are bored or exhausted after it.
When a meeting was only about talking and not about moving forward.

Improve. Measure. Celebrate!

You need to know what challenges are waiting for you. What you will have to face in near future. The hard part is to put everyone on the same page, to create common understanding of each aspect of the problem. That’s why it is so important to name the problem. To confirm that each person who wants to be involved in the solution is aware of every known characteristic, every information that can be important.

When risks and opportunities are listed, when everyone knows where they want to go, when the goal is shared, there are still things that have to be done before you get down to solving problems and taking opportunities.