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[annmarie]

Not to mention ...
After the meeting, I want to get back to the work that needs to be done.  But it is tough to get back to work when I have been doing something else.

It seems that when there is a meeting more time than the time actually spent at the meeting goes by.

[erzuliefreda]

Not to mention ...
After the meeting, I want to get back to the work that needs to be done.  But it is tough to get back to work when I have been doing something else.

It seems that when there is a meeting more time than the time actually spent at the meeting goes by.

New signature for back-to-school!

[t_r_b]

4. STFU. Every word you say makes the meeting last longer.

YES. It is amazing how many blowhard academics (all of whom claim to hate meetings) don't understand this point, or don't think it applies to them and their oh-so-important ideas.

My favorites are the ones who do exactly this, and then complain about how much of their time was wasted in the meeting they needlessly prolonged.

Okay, I confess I have done this myself on occasion. But I am doing my best to master the art of STFU.

[patchouli]

This is the trick, although you can modify to:

doctor/1 hour
another meeting/30 minutes

Fill in as needed . . .

3. At the start of the meeting mention that you need to meet a student in 45 minutes. . . .

[thundering_m]

As LarryC pointed out, an agenda is my ticket to a meeting, akin to a proposal. If there is no agenda, it is not a meeting; by the same token, if there are no minutes from the previous meeting it is an ad hoc coup or other subterfuge. If there is an agenda, it must be distributed in advance, with accompanying documentation that will NOT be read aloud for my entertainment during the strictly defined and monitored opening and adjournment. In addition, the agendas should be stored where all stakeholders can consult them, e.g. a shared drive.

The sequence of the agenda will be predictable and structured in order to acknowledge progress so far, and specific progress reports by people identified in the minutes as responsible for followup tasks. But more importantly is the record of who participated. They should be identified NOT merely by their personal names, which is not reason enough for them to be there. They must be identified by their role in the assembled group, e.g. representative of some other group, chair, visitor, administrative assistant. By the same token, all people who were invited to the meeting must be listed with their role justifying the expectation that they should be present. In this way, any role not represented will then trigger followup to whatever level of authority has an interest in that role being represented. Also, it eliminates any reluctance on the part of some key colleagues to support decisions made at said meetings and reveals the pattern that must be acknowledged in self-reports of the committee.

This may seem overkill, but it establishes the working tasks of the 'billable hour', and routine reference to this documentation should minimize redundancy and the horrifying possibility of being 'rentacrowd' for others holding forth. I want the leader of the  meeting to have a clear idea of what is a) new information, b) required decisions, and c) how it relates to the agreed vision toward which we are working.
 

[racketsports]

Wow, this article- I feel like the author must know me. The 'maker' is me to a T. One of the worst bosses I ever had was a manager in the extreme. To the extent that she was always encouraging us Humanities types to 'take advantage of those 15 minutes at the bus stop, those 10 minutes while walking to campus, those moments when you're making dinner, and catch up on what you need to read for your field.' (I guess that was supposed to compensate for the hours of lost reading time her meetings caused us.) Sure. Why not read Derrida while walking to campus? Or peruse Wittgenstein as I peel carrots? Or enjoy Spenser at the bus stop?

Because they're hard. They're supposed to be! Sheesh.

I eventually did find a coping mechanism for this woman's interminable meetings. I took up a dead language, and would use the meeting time for study. I made grammar charts (I love charts!) and pasted them into my 'work' binder, and no one was ever the wiser. I continue to use this trick to this day.

[rowan1]

I am happily missing a meeting tomorrow as I have other obligations that preclude my driving 4 hours to sit in a cramped conference room with a group of people who have not bothered to learn my name in the year I have been on the board ann listen to at least two of them talk about how much work they do and how underappreciated they are and yet refuse all suggestions to ease their work load and streamline procedures. All offers of help will also get blown off cuz it is just easier "for me to take caare of it."

After spending 4+ hours accomplishing what could easily have been accomplished in 2 if the President of the group would step up and control the discussion points and actually follow the agenda, I would have to drive 4 hours to get back home.  Shucks, I am so mad I am missing this one.  Of course I have at least 3 more years of service to this group (ah, the things we do for tenure).

[fiona]

I just reread the original article, and it's so true and so descriptive of me (and of most people I like).

I'm in the process of e-mailing it to others who'll appreciate seeing in words what they've felt, but thought they were the only ones who twitch in meetings and then have trouble returning to the good thinking projects we've been working on.

The Fiona

[menotti]

For awhile, I worked in a country where meetings were not traditional.  I never had the faintest idea what other people were doing, where the group was going, etc.

Can meetings be a time-waster?  Yes.  Do they serve a purpose?  Yes.