Does it seem that the meeting you attend never end on time?”
Today’s post is by Dennis Nicoletti; Manager at SafeSourcing
This is Part II from the previous post on August 21st 2013 titled PLEASE! End your meetings on time
If you recall from last month’s post I titled a topic: “The meeting facilitator is uninformed or without an agenda”. I wanted to share a quick story. Not too long ago, during a team meeting our department director wanted our department to be recognized as proficient and productive and to stop the meeting craze that was prevalent at my previous company. He stated that going forward we are to decline meetings that did not have an agenda within the invite. Although that sounded a bit extreme it did resolve the numerous meeting invites without a known purpose/objective. Give it a try…see what happens. But be careful it’s not an invite from your boss.
Have you ever been asked to be the Silent Participant? Sometimes being the ‘silent participant’ in the meeting is a position of respect – your boss may want to re-hash the meeting with you at a later time, have another pair of ears and a second opinion of every detail – let’s face it, we do miss some of the content when we participate. It may at first seem needless or a waste of resources but think of being in the meeting as working – because you are!
Keep Your Questions Brief. When asking questions, be succinct and clear. If your question is detailed, break it into parts or several questions. But be sure to ask only one question at a time; others may have questions as well.
The cell phone. Abstain from electronics. Just as the movie theaters requests, “Please silence cell phones”. Unless you’re expecting an emergency call put phones on silent or vibrate. You should also inform the meeting leader that you may receive an emergency call. Additionally, unless laptops are required for sharing data don’t bring or open one…unless that’s how you take notes. Keep in mind that taking notes on a laptop can be distracting to the meeting participants and or facilitator.
Respond to Action Items. After the meeting, be sure to complete any tasks assigned to you as expeditiously as possible; file your meeting notes or any formalized minutes for later review or to have in order to prepare for future meetings
We, at SafeSourcing, take great pride in practicing proper meeting etiquette which in turn allows us to be great business partners for you, our valued client. For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.
We look forward to your comments.
