The sin of omission

"I have to go to the next appointment now!" The words of the division head do not go unheard. The CFO immediately joins in: "I have important things to do" he says, adds "until next time" and leaves the room. The CEO quickly inserts "OK, thanks for the meeting, we'll see you again next week" before packing his things too.

What happened? Nothing unusual: Another meeting without clear results, without clear decisions, without clear actions. Instead, they had been discussing a single point for over 30 minutes in circles.

Why am I telling you this? Well, first of all, the situation described may seem familiar to you. Perhaps you also have meetings whose usefulness can be questioned. In addition, there is a significant problem for many companies: missed opportunities.

Every unsuccessful meeting is a sin of omission.

Why? Well, the time of the participants is the most valuable resource you have in the company. Whoever is in the meeting cannot do anything else during this time, i.e. cannot create any other added value. Since a meeting always binds several participants, these opportunity costs add up.

The conclusion: Every meeting must be productive over the top, i.e. produce valuable results.

Here are three things you should keep in mind for each meeting:

1. Results. Ideally, what is different after the meeting? This question needs to be clearly answered by each participant.
2. Participants. Who do you really need to get the results? Often there are too many people or not the right people in the meeting.
3. Preparation. All information is to be distributed in advance and must be processed by the participants beforehand. The valuable time in the meeting is then used to achieve results, rather than to provide information.

To the success of your next meetings! Any questions or needs for support? Click here.