Category Archives: SD MeetMe

So your meeting is necessary… Top 7 tips to get the most out of your meeting

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There are plenty of times when business meetings should be avoided or delayed for the shutterstock_78891034_640x480sake of productivity and company morale. Part one of this blog series looked at the top 6 clues that your meeting is unnecessary. However, a meeting is sometimes the best way to get weigh in from colleagues and make a decision. In part two of this blog series, I look at the top 7 ways to make the most out of your meeting…

1. Do you have an agenda? If you haven’t written up an agenda, then you aren’t yet ready to host a meeting. Email the agenda to participants ahead of time so they can prepare themselves and be in the right frame of mind before the meeting, saving time on bringing people up to speed.

2. Have you got a minute taker? Organise someone in advance to take the meeting minutes so you have a written record of discussions and you don’t have to rely on your memory to recall the task list agreed on. Send a copy to all attendees as soon as possible after the meeting so they have a written reminder of the tasks they need to complete.

3. Be the first to arrive. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting for a meeting to start because the organiser is late. Make sure you are punctual for your own meetings and others will follow your lead.

4. Stick to your scheduled timeframe. You want meeting attendees to be engaged, not looking at their watches. Keep the meeting brief and don’t go over time. The best way to achieve this is by sticking to the agenda and not getting sidetracked. If you find you need more time for discussions, then reschedule for a later date rather than cutting into colleagues’ time without prior consent.

5. Is everyone contributing? No? Anyone just observing rather than participating shouldn’t be there. Every person who attends your meeting should be contributing to it in some way.

6. Is a follow up meeting required? If so, agree on a date while everyone is gathered. This is much harder to organise once the meeting has dispersed. Encourage your invitees to bring their calendars with them to the meeting.

7. Feedback. The best people to help you improve as a meeting host are those who attend your meetings. Find out if attendees found your meeting productive and ask them for tips on how to improve.

As mentioned in part one, many meetings are unnecessary, although I still think there are times when it is good for employees to get together for camaraderie, even if there is nothing pressing to be discussed. Instead of getting together for a meeting to catch up, perhaps consider something more social and informal like a meal.

How do you feeling about the frequency of meetings in your workplace? Are they mostly productive or could many of these meetings be cancelled without affecting productivity? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Top 6 clues that your meeting is unnecessary

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shutterstock_70375231Before you block out Monday at 11am in your team’s calendar from now into eternity, stop to ask yourself if the meeting your scheduling is really necessary. Even meetings scheduled on an as-needed basis are often unnecessary if you really analyse why you are holding the meeting and how prepared you are to host it. Here are 6 questions to help you decide whether your next meeting is unnecessary…

1. Is your meeting scheduled on a regular basis? Employees can quickly come to resent regular meetings as they tend to become unproductive if not managed well. A simple email update might be as effective. Here are a couple of extra questions to help you decide if your regular meeting is necessary… Is there a decision to be made? If the meeting is postponed or cancelled, will it affect productivity?

2. Can the message be communicated another way? Sometimes a meeting isn’t really necessary to pass on information or make a decision, especially if it involves just a few people. Consider an email, phone call, message board or something similar.

3. Is there anyone in your meeting who doesn’t need to be? Resist the temptation to invite all and sundry to the meeting because you think they might find the discussion interesting. Limit your invite list to only those who are needed to make a decision. Don’t forget that time equals money and the more employees you invite to your meeting, the more it is costing the company in lost time if they don’t need to be there. On the flipside, ensure everyone needed for decision making is available. If key stakeholders can’t make it, reschedule for when everyone is available.

4. Is there an objective to your meeting? Don’t host a meeting if you’re unprepared. Be clear on what you want to achieve before you go into the meeting; if you don’t know what you want to get out of it, don’t expect anyone else to work it out for you! If you are clear on the purpose of your meeting, make sure you send out an agenda beforehand so that everyone else is clued up and prepared as well.

5. How long is your meeting? Do you expect it to last for more than an hour? Yes? Then don’t expect anyone to still be paying attention. Keep it brief and if you can’t keep it to under an hour then consider breaking it up or following up via email.

6. Is the meeting room available? This might sound simple, but you wouldn’t be the first person to organise a meeting without confirming the room you need is available. In a similar vein, make sure the equipment and technology you need to host your meeting is also ready to go. Don’t waste other people’s time getting the room in order after the meeting has started.

In part two of this blog series, I look at the Top 7 tips to get the most out of your meeting.

Help! My meetings are fizzlers

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Heard any excuses similar to these lately…

“Sorry I can’t make the meeting, I MUST phone back that customer I’ve been ignoring for the past three years”

or

“Really? You sent 15 email reminders? Yesterday? Nope sorry, I didn’t see them. But I’ll be there next time.”

Meetings often aren’t seen as productive but a waste of time and convincing your colleagues that it will be worthwhile makes climbing Mt Everest look like a picnic. So what can you do to turn things around so that colleagues are so eager to make it to your meetings they arrive early, pen and paper in hand, eager to contribute?

A great meeting involves three stages:- pre meeting, the meeting itself and then follow up.

 

Preparation is the key

The first thing is to decide on an agenda. It’s best to keep meetings as short as possible so if you think your meeting could be a marathon one, move some of the topics of discussion to a later date.

Decide on a start and end time (remember: keep it as short as possible) and ruthlessly stick to it. Avoid scheduling your meeting during meal times or near the end of the working day; you’re unlikely to get the full attention of attendees if they are hungry or counting down the minutes to home time.

Make a list of who needs to be at the meeting. If all the agenda topics aren’t applicable to everyone on your list, then leave these people off the invite list. Only invite those who really need to be there.

Distribute the agenda before the meeting, letting attendees know when it will start and finish and how much time is allocated to each topic. Make sure colleagues who are required to give a presentation or provide information are given plenty of advanced notice.

Organise a meeting room. Does it have enough seating? Is it well ventilated, quiet and distraction-free? Does it have a projector, laptop, microphone or any other equipment you might need? Will you need to provide handouts, notepaper or pens for attendees?

 

During the meeting…

-Allow a few minutes of chatter to allow everyone to settle in, but keep it brief and most importantly… Start On Time.

-Kick off with a brief rundown of the agenda and how long will be spent on each topic.

-Keep the meeting on track. Discussions are great, but if they aren’t on topic then wrap them up or schedule it for further discussion at a later time.

-Give everyone a chance to contribute; don’t allow just a few people to dominate the discussion. If there are attendees who don’t speak up then ask them directly for their thoughts.

-Allow time for questions. If a question interrupts the flow of the meeting, jot it down and address it at the end.

-If a follow up meeting is needed, agree on a time and date before you wrap up your meeting.
-Ensure everyone is clear on what tasks they need to do post-meeting.

 

Once the meeting is over…

-Send out the minutes as quickly as possible, including the action items agreed on.

-Reply directly to any questions or concerns that you either didn’t have time for or didn’t have the answer available to you during the meeting.

 

Have you attended a lot of workplace meetings? What has worked for you and what do you think could be improved? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Sources:

http://www.examiner.com/workplace-issues-in-national/are-your-meetings-the-ones-no-one-wants-to-attend


http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-time-management/11361-1.html#axzz1wJ9mcfBy

Consensus Ad Idem – A Meeting Of Minds

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I have always be keen on the phrase “consensus ad idem”. The phrase itself just rolls off the tongue. However, it is in the meaning that my fondness lies. The image of separate people understanding each other to the extent that the minds meet.

If the reality were only that simple! The task of conveying a message so clearly that the other person understands it exactly as you intended is what many of us aspire to and spend much of our career trying to achieve but never do.

The workplace has long been recognised by scientific management theorists as satisfying an essential social need in people.  A chap by the name of Maslow theorised that once a person has protected himself and his family, put a roof over their heads and food on the table, the next need he will focus on is his social need.  Examples of social needs at a basic level are a need for belonging, for friendships, to love and be loved.  Just to demonstrate how high up this need is, once it is satisfied, there are only two more needs left – esteem (self respect, achievement, attention, recognition and reputation) and then finally self actualization (reaching one’s potential as a person). Maslow stated that in general, an individual won’t move on to satisfy the next need until the previous need has been satisified.

When we arrive at a meeting (assuming we have a roof over our heads and food in our stomach) the next thing we need to satisfy is how we relate to others in a social manner. Unless of course that need has already been satisfied. This is obviously all scientific management talk but it does bear thinking about.  The next time you take the trouble to organise a meeting well, meaning that you:-

1. clearly defined the purpose of the meeting

2. selected the right attendees

3.  provided the correct reading material

4. established and executed the correct precursors to the meeting

5. arranged for the right people to be taking appropriate notes

6. booked the right meeting room and have everybody arrive on time

You’ve gone to all this effort and yet you still can’t seem to get the right focus in the meeting. Individuals are still wandering off track, seemingly spouting words without considering the topic or their colleagues comprehension and the distractions continue with any number of other socially-based meanderings. Maybe you should consider that the social needs of the attendees have not been met. This is a whole other science and out of my scope of knowledge. However, there are steps you could take to minimize this:-

1.  Arrange for meetings to be held shortly after lunch (social needs have hopefully been met by this time of day)

2. Set aside an amount of time prior to a longer meeting for socialising to take place

3.  At longer meetings, ensure regular breaks take place and attendees get the chance to chat around the cookie and coffee/tea table

4. If time permits, set aside some time after the meeting for socialising (an incentive for wrapping up the meeting on time)

We can achieve a Meeting of Minds with others, while still disagreeing with their comments, positions and proposals.  In order for this to happen it is often of benefit to minimise the social aspect, allowing us to focus on what is actually being said in order to gain a true and unbiased understanding.

Meeting notes – are you really listening?

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Meetings are often carried out in an adhoc fashion without full regard for the big question – “Why”? 

Most of the “why” questions are obvious and worthy of an answer.  We all know how to tie a shoelace but how many of them come undone too early? Most of us know how to tie a necktie but how many of us get it right first time, every time? Unlike tying a tie, there is no single magic formula that will meet the needs of every meeting. This does not mean however that we shouldn’t pay attention to how we can improve on the basic tenets of good meeting techniques. This will allow us to focus better on our core competencies, the ones we were actually hired for.

Have you noticed how many people take notes in meetings and how many don’t?   Have you ever wondered how some people can write so fast?  What is it exactly that they are finding so noteworthy…. if I could only just … get… a …peek…

Have you ever asked why you are taking notes?  Hasn’t it occurred to you that eight people all taking the same notes in a meeting is redundant. Of course some notes aide your memory, to prime for a question about to be asked. Some notes are specific to the author, relating to an action that only they will carry out and others are note reminders about booking the squash court for the game tonight.

If everyone is writing the same notes, doesn’t that just tell you something about the meeting and its organisation? How much of the notes taken in a meeting could have been handed out by the organiser before the meeting? If you are busy noting down what is being said, then you are not listening fully but you are certainly ‘note’ engaged fully.

Instead, consider this approach:

- only call a meeting for which you have prepared well for (if this is possible in the situation)

- circulate notes to be read beforehand

-appoint meeting note takers beforehand – this function can rotate among the attendees depending on the topic

- one option is to have the notes visible on a screen for all to see but only for reference, not for distraction

-agree on notes and action items before the meeting is concluded

-have the notes attached to the project file or in a commonly accessible area

The most important aspect to consider of any meeting and its organisation is that it does not always have to be conducted in a certain way. However you choose to conduct your meeting it should be well prepared, leaving the participants with the surety that their time was used most efficiently.

Note taking is another example of preparing yourself and the participants ahead of time. Preparation is the key to building a reputation as a good meeting organiser.

Time is Money

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This should be written on the door and emblazoned on the seats of every chair in the meeting room.  Every seven minutes a voice should pipe up from the corner of the room,  reminding the participants of this tenet.

In your average organisation, only certain people can order a new pencil;  a procedure has to be followed, a protocol has to be observed.  Paperwork has to be filled out and sometimes justification has to be provided (“What happened to the pencil we gave you just last week?”), all for a 10 cent pencil.

However, in many organisations many different people are allowed to call a meeting, often without any real authorisation.

My chairman once told me that every consulting seat in the company cost $618 per day.  That was how much it cost to have me sit there with a computer in front of me, a roof over my head,  a salary in my bank account, a letter brought to my desk, a cup of tea delivered on a trolley twice a day, and more of course.

That was the minimum amount of money I needed to earn the company every single day, in order for me to come in to work the next. These words weren’t delivered harshly but still brought a certain focus to the importance of each work day.

Meetings are costly.  People generally know this.

Many people within an organisation understand that meetings cost money in terms of people’s time.  However,  in general there is little comprehension as to the true cost of:-

a. The total cost. People usually only consider the salary cost of a person.  Try asking the management accountant of a company how much an operations person actually costs.

b. The interruption that a meeting costs.  For example, a programmer who is four levels deep in a programming cycle and ‘in the zone’ but is then disrupted for a meeting – this might cost many more hours of effort to come back to the same position.  Or a salesperson, who because of a meeting is unable to make an important call at a suitable time and risks forfeiting a major deal.

Accountants may refer to this as an opportunity cost.

Hot Potato

Calling a meeting should be like the old adage Holding onto a Hot Potato. There must be responsibility on the part of the meeting ‘caller’ for the success of the meeting, especially when understanding the true cost of a meeting. How we define a meeting’s success is dependent upon the circumstances and reasons for the meeting.

Getting everyone in the office together to announce the passing of the cleaning lady – while tragic – has different dependencies and measures of success than that of a meeting to decide on whether to replace the company’s existing fleet vehicles.

There is a unifying theme to each and every meeting. Every meeting must have:-

1. a desired outcome

2. an understanding of that outcome

3. the outcome should be communicated to all attendees

Time is Money and Meetings Cost Time

Meeting Quality: Silk Purses from Sow’s Ears

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Irrespective of the changes in business trends over the past 30 years, the fundamentals of  running a successful business haven’t changed.

Two of these fundamentals are:

1.  Meetings cost money

2.  Products created through a quality process cost less and work better

Quality does not happen by accident.  It is a deliberate outcome from a carefully thought out, controlled process. A quality product is THE reflection of the processes within the company and the company itself. Quality processes are generated by people and can’t exist without people coming together.  People come together in meetings.

The goal of most meetings is decision making.  Ideally, a decision is arrived at through the reasoned synergy of its participants. The quality of any decision is dependent upon the quality of each and every process involved.

How can you tell if your meetings are high quality?

Sadly, you probably can’t.  Most people think their meetings are productive. If asked, they would probably say their meetings have elements of quality in them.  Luckily enough, you won’t have to ask anyone if your meetings are quality. If they are, others will let you know.

This article’s goal was not about providing key points on how to conduct meeting, but rather stating the obvious – meetings cost money – and asking yourself the question…  “Do I have a reputation for conducting good meetings?”

If the answer is no, then there are more questions you need to ask.

How to make every meeting a winner

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Avoiding meeting room frustration Food. It’s that simple. Do your employees or colleagues burn shoe rubber running away from meetings? Want them to sprint to the board room instead? If you’re at your wits end trying to get them involved and fancy power points, video clips and colourful hand outs haven’t worked, I’m going to let you in on a secret. Food. Yep, it’s that simple. Feed the masses at your meetings and you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand, figuratively speaking.

Okay, it’s probably not that simple, but a hearty feast couldn’t hurt! I’ve spent my fair share of years groaning inwardly when someone called a meeting – the spontaneous ones were the worst – and I guessed many other people probably respond in a similar way. So I did a survey to find out what the general working public thinks about meetings. To be fair, I asked them what they love and hate about meetings. Here is a few take home pointers for you.

Meeting ‘loves’ 

-when the food is catered for
-comedy in presentations
-food
-interactive presentations with pictures and activities
-discussions
-handouts
-presentations that are straight-to-the-point
-being asked to take on a responsibility and everyone avoiding eye contact
-leftovers from meetings you don’t attend
-survey results in statistical form are a great sleeping aid
- getting paid to sit in a meeting

Meeting ‘hates’ 

-boring presentations (this was a popular response!)
-having to whisper
-no food
-no interaction
-long winded speakers
-monotone presenters who read straight from the power point slides
- everyone pushing bulls&*t around the room like dung beetles
-noisy extroverts who think out loud and monopolise meetings
-when no decisions are made and another meeting is called to further discuss what was supposed to be discussed at the first meeting
-when time is wasted talking about plans when you could have done the job in the time you spent discussing it in a meeting
-repetitiveness from one meeting to the next
-wanting to say ‘spit it out’ when someone takes 10 minutes and a thousand words to say something they could have done in far less time
-endless discussions of things with not enough of a concrete plan or solution so they just get discussed again in the next meeting with no resolution in sight
-people repeating what others have said just so they can say something in the meeting and feel important
- having to write up minutes after the meeting
- people’s insane belief that they are necessary for success

Can you relate to any of these? How could meetings in your workplace be improved? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Post Brainshare Exhilaration

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Oh my goodness!

When we signed up to exhibit at Novell’s Brainshare 2011, we did not expect an event with so much excitement about Novell and their new direction under Attachmate.

It has been a week now since we got back, and we are still reeling from both the event and the aftermath (and all of the incredible travel disasters that occurred on the way but that is a completely different blog!)

The people were amazing. With over 2000 people in attendance the atmosphere was beyond what we anticipated. We had so many fantastic people visit our booth from all over the world, both at the Oktoberfest theme party and during the week. I can’t recall a Brainshare (and I have been at more than I care to admit) where I have worked so hard and seen so many people come past our booth. It was great to catch up with some of our existing customers from afar as well as meet a host of potential new ones.

While our SD MeetMe product was very much a hot topic, Adrian, Henrik and I were very much left with the impression that controlling risk, Compliance and email Archiving are definitely the topics of the hour, and the interest we had from attendees regarding SD Archive for archiving, retention, eDiscovery and restoration of GroupWise accounts was fantastic to see.

The technology showcase and lab was hot with excitement over the new products that Novell had on offer and the number of partners who participated in the event. Attachmate have invested heavily in the Novell teams, both on the product side and on the customer side and this was very evident. So if you haven’t yet had a visit from Novell people who are re:focused on their customers- expect one.

Lots of work has been done with GroupWise 2012 and its impending release was cause for much talk and excitement around Brainshare. We gained a unique opportunity to chat in depth with the Collaboration team and the magic that they have worked with GroupWise and Vibe is going to make those two products unstoppable.

GroupWise 2012 users can expect dramatic improvements to mobility (particularly on Apple’s iPad and iPhone – which are very near and dear to my own heart) as well as a very sexy new Web Access interface. Integrations with Vibe make anyone looking at Microsoft’s SharePoint do a double take; and the wondrous inclusion of Novell’s Data Synchroniser virtually eliminates any third party integration arguments people have thrown at Novell in the past.

If you have recently migrated away from GroupWise- you should be kicking yourself, and if you haven’t but are thinking migration is a foregone conclusion, you might want to revisit those business reasons and have another look before you make a costly mistake.

Novell is back in the house! See you at Brainshare in 2012!

Adrian (VP Bus Dev & Marketing), Taryn (CEO) and Henrik (BDE) at the Oktoberfest Theme Party- Brainshare 2011

SilverDane Integrates with your GroupWise Strategy

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We know GroupWise.

Our team have been working with GroupWise since before it was GroupWise, in multiple roles, from teaching it as CNI’s to migrating to it (and from it) as CNE’s, in organizations with 100 to 100,000 users, to participating intrinsically in BETA testing new releases as Novell’s fabulous GroupWise product development team churned out yet another release of the worlds most secure email system.

We know GroupWise……
………….. and we know the people who love it, and why they love it.

When we sat down around a board room table with a white board and what we thought were white board makers 6 years ago, there was an outrageous air of excitement about us.

Join us at Brainshare 2011

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Haven’t got your ticket for BrainShare 2011? Feeling left out?
 
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