Tom LaForce

How well are meetings handled in your organization? If the answer is less than good, you may want to consider implementing the following rules within the company. They are easy to understand and not that hard to follow.

1. If there isn’t a good reason to meet, there will not be a meeting.
2. If there isn’t a good reason for me to attend a meeting, I will not attend.
3. Every meeting will have the goal of achieving one or more measurable objectives. If they are not present, see rule #1.
4. Every meeting will have an agenda that clearly lays out a reasonable plan for achieving the objectives.
5. Every meeting will have one person in charge of leading the discussion.
6. All decisions and action items will be recorded by one person in charge of taking notes for the meeting.
7. Meetings will not be scheduled to last any longer than a tightly developed agenda states it will need to last.
8. Meetings will start on time.
9. Meetings will not run past the scheduled end time.
10. If the meeting agenda is completed before the scheduled end time, the meeting will adjourn.
11. Somebody will pay attention to the clock.
12. The quality of every meeting will be assessed at the end and improvement suggestions will be incorporated at future meetings.
13. If there isn’t a good reason to meet, there will not be a meeting.

Wait a minute. Isn’t #13 a repeat? As a matter of fact, it is. Now there shouldn’t be any reason to forget it.