If office meetings don't have a definite purpose, they should be avoided as much as possible.
When I worked for Texaco in Panama, I was overwhelmed by the number of company meeting we had every week. Often when a meeting was over, I asked myself what what the purpose of the meeting and I couldn’t answer the question. The same thing happened to other attendees of the meetings.
During the meetings we frequently came up with good ideas that ended up as good ideas. I mean that after the meeting was adjourned, nobody made a follow up or a follow through. The good ideas eventually evaporated. Thousands of dollars of valuable company’s resources were wasted. It was money down the drain.
What is a meeting? Wikepedia Encylopedia defines a meeting, when two or more people come together for the purpose of discussing a (usually) predetermined topic such as business or community event planning, often in a formal setting. The key words here are “purpose of discussing a predeterminded purpose”. If a meeting doesn’t have this essential element, then it should be cancelled until a purpose is defined prior to the meeting.
“In organizations, meetings are an important vehicle for personal contact. They are so common and pervasive in organizations, however, that many take them for granted and forget that, unless properly planned and executed, meetings can be a waste of time and resources.”
If you are a decision maker and plan to hold several meetings of your deparment during the month, please evaluate if these meetings are really necessary. If not, just invite a couple of your employees to an amicable chat at the company’s cafeteria. You could be saving your company thousands of dollars a year and decreasing the possibilities of getting a raise. Good Day!
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