Beyond Folders : meetings, communications

Meet with Success

Community Manager — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:15:00 GMT

Time in meetings isn't always time well spent. Studies show that up to 50 percent of meeting time is wasted: listening to ineffective presentations, daydreaming and even dozing. Yes, people do sleep during meetings. Want to make sure no one gets caught napping in your meetings? We've assembled some useful tips for running productive, engaging meetings.

Meeting Guidelines

To begin, let's deal the myth that office workers universally abhor meetings. In Why We Secretly Love Meetings Harvard Business Review blogger and management consultant Ron Ashkenas asserts that most managers actually like meetings. Ashkenas says meetings happen again and again for three reasons:

Meetings encourage social interaction. Most people don't enjoy working alone; they want contact and relationships with other people and meetings make them feel part of a community.

Meetings keep everyone in the loop. As companies become more matrixed and interdependent, meetings serve as a hub that connects an organization's various spokes, enabling people to know what's going on in other parts of the organization.

Meetings represent status. Meetings offer people a seat at the decision-making table and membership on different committees signals that one is part of the leadership team. Being asked to present or answer questions at a meeting can provide visibility and is status-enhancing.

Okay, so people may like meetings more often they admit but most folks would also agree they do not like having their time wasted. So take time to create and run productive meetings.

Effective meetings boil down to three criteria:

Effective meetings achieve a defined objective. Productivity expert David Allen recommends starting every meeting with a "statement of wild success." This clear definition of the best possible outcome for the meeting puts everyone on the same page, working towards the same desired outcome.

Effective meetings take up a minimum amount of time. Set an agenda and stick to it. Set a start and end time and allocate a specific time for each agenda item. Don't allow any one person to dominate the group.

Effective meetings leave participants feeling that a sensible process has been followed. Before the meeting ends, summarize what was achieved and assign participants action items. At the meetings close, debrief participants separately for feedback. What went well? What didn't work? What could be improved upon? This will help you run meetings more effectively in the future.

Finally, for more ideas, read Inc.com's comprehensive How to Run an Effective Meeting.

Do you think meetings are an effective use of your time? What tips do you have for running productive, results-oriented meetings? Share your thoughts here and at the Beyond Folders Facebook page.

by Candie Harris

Creating a Virtual Water Cooler

Community Manager — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:43:00 GMT

The office water cooler enjoys an iconic reputation in the American workplace. It's the hub of office chit chat about must-see TV and weekend plans while simultaneously being the front-line of critical office information.

Given the value of water cooler communications, remote employees and nomadic workers need to fill the void created by their alternative work environments. What's needed is a virtual water cooler.

Fortunately, the rise of social networking makes sipping from the virtual water cooler a real possibility. Social media allows users to build professional networks and exchange business ideas virtually. Social networking can also provide inspiration, boost morale and mitigate feelings of isolation.

Many different networks exist, under two broad categories:

Horizontal networks: Broad networks where anyone can belong. Examples include: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter
Vertical networks: niche networks, often organized by profession (military.com, policelink, linkedin) or by area of interest (babycenter, dogster, ravelry, [a knitting network]).

Spend time thinking about what type of network best serves your needs. Perhaps it's a broad network such as Facebook used in combination with a niche community focused on your profession.

Looking to "tweet" and "friend" a virtual water cooler network? We've assembled a collection of articles on how social media can help.

Twitter as the Virtual Water cooler
Monitoring the Virtual Water Cooler: Facebook and Beyond
Four Tips for Businesses on Becoming a Savvy Social Networker

Commit yourself to building and managing a social network just as you would face-to-face office relationships. The Wall Street Journal recently declared that Facebook and Twitter have dethroned e-mail as the king of communication.

It's time to stop by that virtual water cooler and check in.

Do you make use of a virtual water cooler? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Bradley Eggers

Meeting Etiquette

Community Manager — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:13:00 GMT

Across the pond, the new English Prime Minister has set tongues wagging with his decision to ban cabinet members from using mobile phones and BlackBerries in meetings. This tempest is in an English teapot but it does bear thinking about at home. I would be lying if I didn't say that at times, I would love to ban phones, blackberries, and laptops from meetings. Technology has clearly changed the way we work and live. But has it changed the rules of what is polite and acceptable in business meetings?

Maintaining Meeting Etiquette

According to Christine Pearson, a management professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management, Thunderbird School of Global Management technology and its omnipresence in the workplace is eroding civility. Pearson interviewed 9,000 U.S. workers and managers for her book The Cost of Bad Behavior and concluded that texting and emailing during meetings is a serious lapse of etiquette.

"No one likes to be snubbed, of course, but the offense can take on a new edge when the winner is a machine," observed Pearson in a recent New York Times article Sending a Message that You Don't Care.

Managers work hard to plan and execute successful meetings. Don't let a meeting be derailed by texting and cell phone interruptions. Establish a protocol for managing meeting technology etiquette.

Steps could include:

Remind everyone that face-to-face meeting time is valuable.
Impose a moratorium on devices during some meetings, but allow breaks for checking e-mail, texts and networking accounts.
Work with your staff to set guidelines about what is and isn't reasonable in your particular workplace.
Hold everyone accountable to the guidelines - including yourself.

One of the first rules for life we are taught as young children is 'mind your manners.' Keep this old truism firmly in mind when next tempted to check your e-mail or send a text during a meeting. Remember, that the message you could be sending is that what is on your e-mail or cell phone is more important than interacting with the person you are with.

Do you think meeting etiquette is being executed well in your workplace? Could your office stand to improve its meeting etiquette policies? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Candie Harris

How to Run a Successful Business Meeting

Community Manager — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:36:00 GMT

Conducted face-to-face or in a virtual space, as a two-person exchange or at an annual gathering of two thousand, meetings are essential to business life.

Running a successful business meeting is part art and part science. Even if you are a natural leader, you might find this a tough mix to master. Here are some resources to help you.

At Forbes.com, Dr. Nadine Katz shares the results of a study she conducted on making meetings more efficient. Her top finding? There is no substitute for preparation, which includes:

Sending participants a detailed meeting agenda in advance
Touching base with participants to highlight important talk points
Surveying the meeting space to assess factors like lighting and temperature
Establishing clear rules for dealing with lateness, rudeness or similar disruptions

A BusinessWeek article on How to Run a Meeting Like Google echoes Dr. Katz's insights and adds that assigning an official note taker and sticking to the clock helps curb meeting, and post-meeting, chaos. Rounding out the advice, a piece from WomenEntrepreneur encourages meeting leaders to:

Have an emotional goal going in
Live the tone you want to set
Facilitate, don't dominate
Read the room

If you are running your meeting via the Web, Mashable has 5 important tips for your success. Last, but not least, proving that even the biggest business meetings benefit from a healthy dose of lightness and humor, here is a Wall Street Journal post featuring a video clip from Southwest Airlines' 2009 annual meeting.

by Bradley Eggers