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Time Tip-Meeting Madness
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Don Wetmore
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Jun 23, 2009 08:05 PDT
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MEETING MADNESS
45% of company employees think work would be more productive if their
company banned meetings one day a week, according to a report in
USAToday.
Much of meeting time is wasted time. Use the article below to help
curtail some of the wasteful meetings.
MEETING MADNESS
By:Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
“I can’t help you now!” shouted Sarah as she raced past her boss. “I’m
going to a meeting!”
“Look at all this email from our customers!” exclaimed Alan. “They’ll
have to wait because I’m going to a meeting!”
Willy was feeling stressed. He should finish correcting the travel
report for his boss, but he has to set it aside because he has to go to
the meeting.
It’s now 2:05 p.m. Sarah, Alan, and Willy are in the conference room
ready to meet. They’re always on time for the meeting, well just a few
minutes late. Martha, Chuck, Fred, and Tom are not there yet. (They’re
always late for everything except for their flights at the airport.)
They feel that few people truly understand their unique set of
responsibilities. Sarah, Alan, and Willy appreciate their time together
to get caught up on the office gossip while waiting for the others to
arrive.
2:17 p.m. and Tom has arrived. Sarah leaves for “just a minute” to check
her voicemail. Willy leaves to go to the bathroom. Martha arrives, and
sees that everyone is not there yet and returns to her desk to check her
email.
At 2:28 p.m. Willy is back and Chuck and Fred drift in. Fred wants to
know why we are always running out of coffee filters. Chuck suggests
that a meeting be set up to appoint a committee to look into and discuss
the matter. Alan leaves to round up Sarah and Martha.
2:33 p.m., Alan returns with Sarah and Martha but Tom is in the hallway
talking with Jan. Jan just got out of a horrible meeting and wanted to
share with Alan. Jan senses that she may be wasting a lot of her time in
meetings. Alan points out that they are important and “how would it look
if you weren’t there?” he asks. “True.”, replies Jan.
Chuck says, “Let’s get started. Alan will join us in a minute. Sarah,
bring us up to date on the status of getting our new telephone extension
numbers.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you wanted me to talk about that today. I, uh, really
don’t have too much on that.” remarked Sarah as she turned away from her
crossword puzzle.
“Why do we need new telephone extension numbers anyway?” asked Willy.
“We decided that last month although if you have some input on this, we
should like to hear it.” Chuck explained. “Weren’t you here at the last
meeting?”
“Willy’s never here.” scolded Martha.
“Am so.”, defended Willy.
It’s 2:42. Alan sticks his head in the door. “Sorry. Something just came
up. I’ll have to skip the meeting.”
“But Alan, you were going to review the sales figures.” implored Chuck.
“I know”, added Alan, “but I’ve got to go to another meeting. It’s very
important.”
For the next ten minutes the group discusses Alan’s apparent lack of
focus and how he is really hurting the team.
Around 2:53 p.m., a new discussion begins and the group agrees that they
all have “too much to do”, that this is unfair, and that something has
to be done about it.
At 2:59 p.m., a new group is milling about in the hallway. It is their
time to meet in the conference room. Kate runs that meeting. It is very
important because they have reserved two full hours for their meeting.
She pokes her head in the meeting room. “You guys almost done? We have
to have our meeting.”
Chuck replies, “Oh, ok, thanks. I have another meeting to go to myself.
We’ll be done in just a minute. We just have to set the date for our
next meeting.”
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, a full-time Professional Speaker, is one of the
foremost experts and speakers on Time Management and Personal
Productivity and the author of Beat the Clock, Organizing Your Life and
The Productivity Handbook. Invite Don to conduct his dynamic Time
Management Seminar on-site, at your location, from one hour up to three
full days for groups of any size. For more information, email your
request for “on site” to: cts-@msn.com
Copyright 1999 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in
your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your
request for “reprint” to: cts-@msn.com
Visit our blog now at http://timemanagementseminars.blogspot.com/ for
over 100 complimentary Time Management articles to help you get more
done in less time and with less stress!
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062
(800) 969-3773
cts-@msn.com
http://www.balancetime.com
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