Make short shrift with old meeting rules!

Has your employer already fully embraced ‘The New Way of Working’? In organisations that have adopted the New Way of Working really seriously, you work when and where you want. It might be from your home office, from the office of a client or in a café, early in the morning or late at night – it really doesn’t matter. There are no problems as long as employees deliver their work as agreed. The result is that increasingly more offices are being laid out with a maximum number of fixed workstations. The rest of them are flexible workstations. 

New Meeting Rules

If you and your colleagues are already used to the New Way of Working, why still hold your meetings in the old-fashioned way? Is it really necessary that everyone religiously attends the weekly meeting? Even though they may not have a lot of news to tell? Just ask yourself. Maybe it’s time to breathe fresh life into your meetings routine! With the New Meeting Rules, you can do just that.

Meeting Rule 1: Start with a double-check

Your alarm bells ring as soon as your manager asks you to organise a meeting. You immediately wonder if it’s necessary. A double check can save you a lot of time. Why devote expensive working hours to a meeting if there’s actually very little on the agenda? Do you get stressed at the thought of what will happen to the weekly meeting on Tuesday morning? Welcome to the 21st century! There’s now a new rule: only hold a meeting when there are enough items on the agenda. Say goodbye to meetings that are held only because they’ve been planned. So check whether there are sufficient items on the agenda in plenty of time. If there aren’t, cancel the meeting. That’s efficiency.

Meeting Rule 2: Timing is k(ill)ing

If you want effective meetings, keep an eye on the clock. That means starting and finishing on time. Has the same colleague turned up or logged in too late again? Then the chairman will have a word with him about his behaviour after the meeting, It’s at least as important to wrap the meeting up on time. This is quite a bit easier if you set a maximum speaking time for each item on the agenda.

Meeting Rule 3: Less is more

If you think that you have to invite too many people to a meeting, sit down with the initiator and take a critical look at the list together. The fact is that meetings with too many people are very ineffective. The variation in opinions is too great and the more that people talk across each other, the less is finally decided and done. There’s a greater chance of achieving your objective faster with fewer attendees.

All 7 meeting rules

There are another four meeting rules and, of course, you would like to read them. No problem. You can download them here.