Stanley Cherkasky
Managing Partner
Change Management Consulting, Inc. (CMC) is a global management consulting and training company dedicated to helping organizations of all sizes improve performance, achieve goals and advance leadership capability. |
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Greetings!
Welcome to our monthly newsletter. It delivers valuable news, best practices, and resources to enhance your organization's competitive position. Since our focus is on achieving business results, we truly become a business partner to our clients. This is accomplished through a combination of assessments, customized training, and management consulting.
Our diversified products and services are complementary, and based on best practices and innovative design. CMC's core competencies include: change management, leadership development, strategic planning, continual improvement initiatives, compliance management (ISO quality and environmental management systems) and Lean Six Sigma. |
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Making Meetings More Productive
One of the most underutilized management skills is the ability to run a productive meeting. There are about ten million meetings held each day in corporations across America. We estimate that at least half of the person-hours spent in those meetings are wasted. Many meetings, at best, are just exchanges of information and are not productive.
Leaders tend to take meetings for granted, and don't spend enough time planning or developing the leadership skills that are needed to run a meeting effectively. We have found that senior managers rarely take a critical look at their own performance at meetings. Consequently, most never spend the effort to improve as "meeting leaders."
The Physician's Analogy to Meetings
The learning of meeting management skills can be compared to the general training of a physician. The doctor studies both the anatomy, or structure of the body, and the physical process - the physiology. In looking at the meeting, the anatomy includes such elements as the agenda, the meeting room, who will participate, meeting objectives, action items, etc. But just as important is the physiology, or processes - the group dynamics, and the flow of interactions which actually allow for the attainment of the objectives.
Meeting Management Absolutes
Here are ten guidelines to make your meetings a more productive tool:
- Stick to the subject and be cautious of tangents and war stories.
- Distribute an agenda in advance so that everyone may prepare.
- Make meetings short, crisp and to the point.
- All participants must come prepared with data needed to finalize decisions.
- Leadership must be non-manipulative; coercion is never the answer.
- Start on time and end on time; punctuality should be part of your culture.
- Stay focused; reach the decisions the meeting was called to make.
- Don't allow interruptions from within or without.
- Don't allow one or two individuals to dominate the meeting.
- Distribute meeting minutes to give the participants adequate feedback.
One additional thought. Forget all-day marathon meetings. Remember, a meeting is productive when it achieves its objectives - in a minimum of time-to the satisfaction of the participants. Almost any meeting, if there has been adequate planning, can be over and done with in an hour and a half. This leaves more time for the participants to get their work done.
Learn more about developing leadership effectiveness through professional CMC onsite management training and performance coaching that yield measurable results.
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News Briefs
Today's organizations are looking for ways to attract, engage, and retain talented people; maintain steady operations through times of difficulty and transition; and continuously improve and renew the firm. With these goals in mind, effective leadership communication is crucial. Leaders need to be key communicators to maximize their team's and organization's success. (Source: The Leader as Communicator)
Companies that invest in learning outperform the market by more than 45%. Companies that don't invest in their staff's professional development under-perform the market by 22%. (Source: ASTD)
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