Boring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of Your Meetings, or Get Out of More Meetings

Agenda Item 8

Heed This … or Continue to Suck for the Next Millennium

Have you ever really looked at the ROI on meetings? What are your meeting statistics? How many do you have a day? How much production gets done versus how many hours wasted? How much information do people retain once they leave a meeting?

I have written an entire book about how to make your meetings more productive, effective, and meaningful. I have teased, cajoled, and even threatened you to stand up and take responsibility for your meetings.

I could simply conclude this book with these statements: Meetings are about you. They are run by human beings and they are attended by human beings. Effective meetings can make the difference between an organization that simply survives and organization that thrives, and everyone is responsible for making a meeting successful.

But that quick summary would be boring.

Instead, I'm going to give you just a tad more advice … advice that I promised to give in Agenda Item 1 but, in true meeting fashion, have yet to deliver.

Remember our mantra? “Get In, Get It Done, and Get Out.” Well, I hope you know by now how to get into your meetings more effectively and that you have even tried some of the new ways to get them done with speed and efficiency. But what about that “Get Out” part? I've provided some great tips in the form of SRDs in several places, but here's the full skinny on what you can do if you're stuck in a never-ending meeting, trapped by too many dogs off the leash, ...