Death by Meeting

"Meetings," the economist John Kenneth Galbraith once opined, "are indispensable when you don't want to do anything." Most meetings are a waste of time, or worse. Patrick Lencioni in his book Death by Meeting (Jossey-Bass, 2004) says it need not be so. "I never accepted the premise that meetings themselves were bad," he says--just that most meetings are done badly.

Some basic principles according to Lenconi:

• Start on time: When meetings start late, you've already lost people's attention.
• Encourage conflict: Great meetings start with an issue worth getting stirred up about. While consensus may be rare, more participation yields informed decisions.
• Involve the wallflowers: One of the biggest problems is having meaty discussions. By encouraging involvement from those normally reticent, more thoughts surface.
• Don't overdo it: It's impossible to see the forest and the trees at once. By focusing on one set of issues at a time, you’ll deal better with both day-to-day issues and future strategy.
• Stick to it:Most groups try to shake off the discipline of a regular meeting. Make a plan and stick to it.

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