This is a test
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Meetings
Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations
About This Book
The meetings secrets that experts and top professionals use.
Frequently asked questions
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlegoās features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan youāll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weāve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes, you can access Meetings by Martin Manser in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Business General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
1.1
Know your purpose
It may seem unnecessary to discuss the purpose of meetings, but it is a question that has probably occurred to you when you are in the middle of a long, boring meeting: āWhy am I here? What are we actually achieving?ā So before the meeting starts, you need to work out what you want to achieve during the meeting.
Asking āWhat is the purpose of this meeting?ā is probably the most important question that you can ask as you plan, prepare for or go into a meeting: what is its aim? What exactly are you trying to achieve? One thing is certain: if you donāt know the purpose of your meeting before you begin it, itās unlikely that youāll achieve a purpose while the meeting is taking place and before it ends. Further, how will you know if the meeting had been successful if you donāt know what youāre aiming to achieve?
Here are some possible aims of meetings:
āŖ to give information, e.g. to inform colleagues of progress or introduce new products or services
āŖ to review progress on a project
āŖ to negotiate details of a contract
one minute wonder Think of the next meeting you are to attend. What is its purpose?
āŖ to negotiate arrangements, e.g. financial or in politics
āŖ to discuss a proposal for a future project
āŖ to assess and evaluate different strategies or ways of dealing with a problem or a dispute
āŖ to review and approve a certain course of action or a set of accounts
āŖ to come to a decision on a proposal and agree what to do next
āŖ to choose new members of a committee, board, leadership group, etc.
āŖ to listen to or give a talk or presentation on a subject
āŖ to develop a sense of team identity and encourage more effective teamwork
Keep the aims of your meeting simple and clear.
1.2
What can go wrong in meetings?
If we look at some of the things that can go wrong in a meeting, then we can learn from mistakes.
āŖ inappropriate time of meeting, e.g. just before the end of the day
āŖ the meeting is called at short notice
āŖ poor or no agenda
āŖ unclear purpose of meeting
āŖ spending time during the meeting reading background reports
āŖ not having enough copies of papers or reports for all participants
āŖ participants arrive late
āŖ wrong people present
āŖ people who have authority to make decisions are not present
āŖ unclear roles
āŖ noisy venue; room too hot or too cold
āŖ seating unhelpful for discussion
āŖ some people talk too much; others talk too little
āŖ participants are not prepared
āŖ no follow-up from previous meeting
āŖ participants do not reach conclusions or decisions
āŖ participants do not decide actions or who is responsible for them
āŖ poor or no chair
āŖ discussion is in too much detail
āŖ meeting goes on too long: no breaks
āŖ new people present but no one introduces them
āŖ participants use jargon that is not known to all participants
āŖ participants do not really listen to one another
āŖ participants talk to each other during the meeting
āŖ distractions during the meeting, e.g. mobile phones ringing
āŖ participants not being open to change their minds
āŖ participants misinterpret othersā comments
āŖ disagreement or conflict becomes personal
āŖ too many people are talking at the same time
āŖ technical issues
āŖ decisions poorly communicated after the meeting
Most of these can be solved by:
āŖ better chairing of the meeting
āŖ better preparation before the meeting.
case study Larry was called in to solve the problems at the company. He was present at a meeting of the Senior Management Team (SMT). He asked them for the agenda of the meeting and was told there wasnāt one. He asked them for the actions decided at the previous meeting and was told that no minutes had been taken. It was hardly surprising that the company was in a complete mess. Fortunately, Larry knew members of the SMT well, so he could make changes easily and put structures in place, so within a few months the company was making good progress.
Most of the problems with meetings can be solved by better preparation.
1.3
Calculate the cost of meetings
Letās stand back and look at how much meetings actually cost. Suppose there are eight managers in a meeting that lasts three hours. How much do you think the meeting will cost?
Suppose each managerās salary is Ā£30,000.
Ā£30,000 Ć· 48 (52 weeks in the year minus 4 for holidays) = Ā£625 per week.
Ā£625 Ć· 5 = Ā£125 per day. So Ā£125 is what each manager receives as gross pay per day, before tax or other deductions.
Now letās work out the hourly rate of pay received. Managers may be in the office for seven hours but how many of those are actually productive? Letās say five so we have Ā£125 Ć· 5 = Ā£25 per hour: this is the amount of gross pay that a manager is paid per hour.
But we need to multiply Ā£25 by approximately 3 (some colleagues have suggested 2.7; others have suggested 5) to account for general business expenses. We need to think not only of the salaries of those concerned but also of the general costs to the company or organization of each individualās time. Someone has to pay for electricity, cleaning, buildings and employeesā insurance, and government taxes. These could be allocated to each individual. Such general business expenses are referred to as overheads.
āTime is moneyā
Benjamin Franklin (1706ā90), American statesman, scientist and author: Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748)
one minute wonder In a meeting, I sometimes think that Iām in a taxi and Iām watching the meter go up minute by minute for the fare I will be charged. I can see that time costs money. In the same way, meetings cost money.
Ā£25 pounds x 3 = Ā£75. So Ā£75 is the cost per hour of one manager. Now suppose the meeting lasts three hours and eight managers attend it, then the cost of the meeting is Ā£75 x 3 Ć8 = Ā£1800.
This figure is probably higher than you thought.
It also has certain effects: suppose seven managers are waiting for one manager who is 10 minutes late. The amount of money that is wasted while waiting for the late colleague is Ā£88, i.e. Ā£75 Ć· 6 (for 10 minutes) x 6 colleagues = Ā£75.
Suppose also that during the meeting the chairman says that time did not allow them to circulate the paper in advance so every member of the meeting now has to spend 5 minutes reading through the paper, then that costs Ā£75 Ć· 12 (for 5 minutes) x 8 = Ā£50.
This means that you should keep your meeting...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Why have meetings?
- 2 Prepare well for meetings
- 3 Chairing a meeting
- 4 Taking minutes
- 5 Giving a presentation
- 6 Taking part in a meeting
- 7 After the meeting
- Footnotes
- Jargon buster
- Further reading
- About the Book
- About the Author
- About the Publisher