Productive meetings Vs. Time wasters

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Productive meetings Vs. Time wasters
September 04, 2012

Productive meetings Vs. Time wasters

Have you been in a meeting where everybody said "yes" - but after the fact attendees ended up not doing what you thought they would do because they didn't understand the same thing you did?

This is a very common scenario:

People attend a meeting, discuss several issues - and after a long and exhausting debate, they finally reach an agreement. But as time goes by, people begin to realize that they didn't all understand exactly the very same thing - wasting in the process precious time, human resources and even cash.

There is a very simple - yet powerful - tool to help you overcome this widely found situation.

At the end of every meeting - once you reached an agreement - ask every single person in the room to paraphrase with their own words what it is they understood.

If there is no agreement yet - just continue the discussion

But if there is agreement - write it down

Conclusion:

Look at it as an investment. It will take just a few minutes of your time to go around the room to do this - but it will save you time, work - and even money.

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Please note: Although my goal with this "Leader Newsletter" is to send you practical tools that will take you only two minutes to read (that is about 200 words), I don't always reach my goal. This issue of "Leader Newsletter" is one of the few issues with fewer than 200 words (193 to be precise). I will continue to strive for 200 words or less - however - I don't want to sacrifice quality in the name of brevity. I know you are VERY busy - so I thank you VERY much for your understanding.

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