I have also experienced the meeting problem and after suffering through a very nonproductive and wasteful meeting, I published a brief article of how to hold a productive meeting. I also use these criteria to evaluate meetings and make recommendations were appropriate to the leaders. We continue to have "swirl" but I have seen some progress. Below is the article for your review. I can't recall where I got my material from but I assure you its not original thinking. I do like the thought of a cost calculator.
Enjoy, Don Productive Team Meetings Team meetings can take different forms or structure. An impromptu meeting might result from a chance meeting in the hallway, office, or common area. Sometimes impromptu meetings can be productive because people feel free to express ideas in a friendly and informal format. Another type of meeting is a planned meeting. Experts believe that the most effective team meetings include the following elements: 1. Create and distribute an agenda prior to the meeting 2. Established a clear purpose for the meeting 3. Begin and end the meeting on time 4. Follow the agenda 5. Stay focused on the objectives 6. Encourage balanced participation by team members 7. Assign roles (leader, facilitator, scribe, etc.) 8. Set and follow ground rules (i.e., when a decision is made such as consensus, updating absent members, criticizing ideas and not individuals, commitments by team members, and expected contributions) 9. Agree on action items for the next meeting 10. Draft the next meeting agenda The 10 elements mentioned above may not apply to all circumstances. Meetings should be evaluated to determine if the desired results were achieved. If not, then team members should ask whether using any of the 10 elements would help. v -----Original Message----- From: Jim Kaplan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 10:14 AM To: Mahoney, James E; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Meeting Cost Calculator Jim This gets at the root question of the types of meetings that are scheduled, their purpose and organization. I have long felt the same way as I am sure many auditors have that excessive meetings or meetings that are poorly planned or organized are a huge time waster in any organization. I have kept track of some "non-productive" meetings based on staff in attendance and the time but management was not really interested in the results of my efforts. It would be very easy to set up a spreadsheet in Excel that would track meeting time and associated costs but you should find out whether management has any interest in the results. My 2 cents! Jim At 09:12 AM 12/11/2002 -0500, Mahoney, James E wrote: >I know we have all faced the problem of getting tied up in meeting after >meeting which have not always proved to be productive. One of the ways to >keep people on track is to let them know that time spent in meetings is >costing real money as well as the time of everyone involved. > >What I would like to is find some basic software that will keep a running >total of the meeting cost in real time. The input could just be the >average hourly department payroll cost times the number of people >attending. I would then set up a laptop with a full screen display that >says "This meeting has cost $xx.xx" in big red letters. > >Is there a way I can set up something like this in Excel? > >Thanks for your help > >Jim Mahoney >PPL Corp. > >__________________________________________________ > >The information contained in this message is intended only for the >personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the >reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent >responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby >notified that you have received this document in error and that any >review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is >strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, >please notify us immediately, and delete the original message.
