Massive Jam and Meeting

The Home Minister apologised for the massive jams due to the police roadblocks but reiterated that the operations were undertaken in the interest of public security. Huh? What were my damages? Managed to use alternative roads in the morning but many were not so lucky who were stuck for few hours. Scheduled 2 meetings, 1 in each half of the day. The morning session was delayed till noon but as some participants managed to turn up on time, spent the whole morning babysitting them! (What else, talked politics and did some cursing!).

According to Heera Consultancy, problem of excessive meetings has become one of the most mismanaged management function in most organizations. In a survey done by MCI, US :

a) around 11 million meetings occur in the US each day
b) most professionals attend a total of 61.8 meetings per month and over 50% of these meeting times were wasted!
c) 91% admitted to daydreaming and 39% admitted to dozing off during meetings!

Sounded familiar - Leadership by example set by you know who!

Among the reasons listed for the unproductive meetings were :

a) Ritual meeting - Force to attend, don't know the agenda or do not care!
b) Weak chairman - not able to control the meeting
c) Meeting culture - call for meeting for any problem arises

Some recommended measures to ensure effective meetings :

a) Is it necessary? Maybe the issue could be resolved via a phone call!
b) Set a time limit and stick to it
c) Get only the right and necessary people - 3 who can contribute rather than 30 who are there for the sake of being there!

Happy Meeting!