Lane check…who is your “check in person”?
love my daughter’s day care. They care about her, they love on her, some days they even fix her hair in these amazing ponytail/braid/thingies. (If you’ve seen that curly-haired energetic baby girl of mine, you’d know that is an impressive feat.) One afternoon last week, I pulled into the drive of her school, and again experienced the dilemma of where to park to run in to grab her. There are two l
4 by Amber Teamann / 34min
Meetings That Work–and Get Work Done!
by Sam LeDeaux • • 0 Comments
If you find these cartoons humorous, it’s unfortunately likely this is your workplace reality. You are not alone. Why is it common for meetings to be major obstacles to getting things done? Objective. Every leader of a meeting hopes it will be productive; however, specific meeting objectives may vary. It takes more than hope to have a productive meeting. Here are 6 types of meetings, with very different objectives:
“Have a meeting to have a meeting” meeting. These meetings are set in stone on the calendar at the beginning of the year (say, every Monday), and are committed to and protected at all costs. All efforts are focused on finding things to do for the meetings. These meetings never end early, because the leader has spent hours (or even days or weeks!) stressing over how to fill the entire time. In some cases, these meetings result in bonus “emergency” meetings to finish the leftover “work” that time ran out on at the previous meeting.
“I’m the boss” meeting. These meetings rarely begin on time, as the boss likes to make a grand entrance with all present. It’s very ego boosting for the boss: all things come to a stop when he enters, and all eyes are immediately on him. Now the agenda may begin. And when the boss’s presentation/talk at you part of the meeting is over, he can often be found tending to his personal to-do list, taking calls, or even nodding off, while others present and painfully power through the misery. Oh, and since it began late, don’t expect it to end on time. Especially in conjunction with the following…
“In trying to create an agenda that fills the entire preset calendar commitment of meetings, I have convinced myself these things are important to me, so surely they are a priority for you” meeting. A subset of the “I’m the boss” meeting, this meeting has you continuously stupefied in trying to comprehend how these agenda items are worthy of the time away from all the other things you’ve been directed to do, plus the things you know must get done in the best interest of kids and families. The time periods on the agenda are simply suggestions–or worse, template space fillers–and (loosely relevant to begin with) topics frequently spin off on magnificent tangents. These meetings are sure to result in bonus “emergency” meetings to complete the agenda. The only saving grace of these meetings is texting/chatting confidants the “can’t make this stuff up” things you’re being subjected to–unless, these meetings are in conjunction with the following…
“I don’t fully understand the benefits of technology to work production, so it’s not allowed during our meetings” meeting. Any hope you had of being productive is out the window with these meetings. The only work that gets done during these meetings is writing notes to yourself about all the tasks you need to retroactively complete when you are free to return to the 21st century: email your boss that phone number he asked for during the meeting, verify facts presented during the meeting, share a link with the group that would’ve brought clarity to a topic of conversation during the meeting, add some important work related events to your calendar which were shared during the meeting, forward the data to the group that would have made a 25 minute discussion during the meeting moot, begin a google doc to be shared with the group to recap significant information from a discussion held during the meeting, send a doodle to the group regarding an offshoot committee formed during the meeting, etc. These all could have been taken care of on the spot during the meeting, when most meaningful; however, due to technology being prohibited, they must wait, and most likely will not be done until hours, days, or weeks later–if at all. The leaders of these meetings are fully aware of the potential for off-task emailing, g-chatting, texting, and game playing on devices; however, they’re not at all aware that the prohibiting of 21st century devices is entirely independent of their value-lacking content they’ve prepared, which is the cause of the off-task behavior. They’ve also forgotten the power of paper and pens to make grocery lists, pass notes, doodle, and play “dots”. Whether it’s to accomplish work, or pass the time because there is no work to accomplish, you’d give anything for your phone, laptop, iPad, tablet, or any other 21st century work tool. Instead, it’s just you, the pen you borrowed from the person on your right, and the sheet of paper you borrowed from the person on your left. That is, if you’re awake. Otherwise, you need to borrow a tissue from the person on your right to mop up your drool puddle, and apologize to theMeetings That Work–and Get Work Done! | Connected Principals:
