Meetings: How To Start On Time |
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| By: Sara Gentry | ||||
1. Rather than starting a meeting on the hour or half hour, schedule it at an unusual time. Instead of 9:00 try 9:10 or 7:23 instead of 7:30. Experience has shown that people tend to be more punctual for meetings when they are scheduled at times other than on the hour or on the half hour. By scheduling the meeting at an odd time draws attention to the exact minute it is to start. It makes everyone more conscious of the start time including you. If you do this you, of course, must start on time. 2. Appoint an extroverted sargeant-at-arms. Station him at the door to collect a dollar fine from all late-comers at future sessions. Accept no alibis. Make no exceptions - not even top brass! Ultimately, let the group vote on how to use the money collected. "This has worked better for me than anything else' said a Grand Rapids executive. "When you're late you get a little kidding along with the fine!" 3. If you are in charge of the meeting and feel unsure as to whether you have enough planned for the meeting to last the allotted time you might feel tempted to start the meeting late and do a lot of stalling at the beginning. This is a terrible way to begin a meeting. When planning the meeting make sure that you have over programmed the meeting rather than under programmed. Then decide which elements can be left out if you are running out of time. That way you will not be tempted to start the meeting late. 4. Avoid alibis. "They don't expect me to start on time. Besides they want to visit with each other first." Ever hear excuses like these? If people don't expect a meeting to begin at the proper time it's because prior meetings did not. Poor procedure in the past is no reason for such procedure in the future. As for visiting, anyone desiring to visit simply can do so before the appointed hour instead of after it. Moreover, if visiting is really important it should be included in the agenda. A salesperson confided, "Surely we visit while waiting for the meetings to start. But it's not out of choice. It's because we have nothing else to do. We'd much prefer to skip the visiting and get going with the business at hand." 5. Create of checklist of everything that needs to be accomplished before the meeting and make sure everything is completed well before the start of the meeting. Don't plan on doing unrelated tasks prior to the meeting, such as having a conversation with one of the attendees, etc. Take care of these things at another time so that your full attention can be placed on the meeting and will be able to take care of any last minute surprises. 6. If you have regular meetings that people are showing up late for, get in the habit of placing an alarm clock on the speakers stand that is set to go off at the start time of the meeting. Watch the time carefully and make sure it goes off on time and let it ring for a few seconds to get peoples attention and to get them settled down. Then immediately shut the alarm off and begin the meeting. You will find that once you start doing this that people will expect is ant will complain if you discontinue using it. |
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| Article Source: http://business2u.co.za | ||||
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