Meeting Effectiveness – Attendance

Too often we find ourselves attending meetings that we should not be attending. In most cases some well intentioned person felt that you needed to be a part of the meeting so that you were looped in on the discussion. You get the meeting invite and even though you are not sure if you need to be there you attend anyways because you don’t want to miss something important or send a message, by not attending, that you don’t think the meeting is important. Can you relate to these feelings?

Keeping Attendees Up-To-Date

There is nothing wrong with being looped in on an important discussion but there are ways to loop people in while still respecting their time. Before you invite someone to a meeting ask yourself the following two questions and be 100% honest with yourself about the answers. Your meeting productivity and the productivity of the individuals in your organization depend on answering these questions honestly.

1. To meet the objective(s) of the meeting do I need input from the person that I can’t get via an email or quick phone call?
2. Is the person a key stakeholder or decision maker?

Meeting Subscribers

If the answer to both questions is “No” then do that person a favor and don’t invite them to the meeting. Instead designate them as a “Meeting Subscriber” and let them know that as a Meeting Subscriber they will receive a concise summary report for the meeting that will provide them with the information that they need to know. If you are using MeetingResult you can easily designate someone as a Meeting Subscriber by clicking on their name twice while choosing attendees for a meeting. Using this new approach to selecting meeting attendees will limit attendance in your meetings and keep them focused on achieving the stated objective while keeping others informed.

Do you attend meetings that you shouldn’t?  Do others attend your meetings that shouldn’t?

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