Paper-free, does that sound like utopia to you? I can well imagine! Each Dutch employee makes an average of 9 photocopies a day. The current total paper usage in the small country of the Netherlands is an astonishing 2.8 million ton! Okay, you enjoy “real paper” at home, for instance, leafing through a magazine on the couch with a glass of wine. However: we can and should drastically reduce paper usage at work, using the digital methods at our disposal. Reduce paper usage: how? There are various ways to decrease the amount of paper used by your organization. For instance, […]
7 tips for effective meetings
Everyone has experienced them, those meetings that seem to drag on forever. Endless discussions with no resolutions: it's such a waste of time and, particularly, money. That’s why this blog will give you seven tips to increase the efficiency of the meetings in your organization. 1. Is it really necessary to meet? This may seem obvious but it is still important to ask: do all of these topics really need to be discussed? Perhaps a meeting isn’t even necessary! 2. Clear agenda An effective meeting begins with a clear agenda that is distributed well in advance so that all participants […]
Tips for municipalities to update their meetings
The average municipality will change drastically in the future due to aging, cultural diversity and regionalizing, among other modifications. That is the case with one of our clients, the municipality of Utrecht. In order to involve their citizens as much as possible in developments, Utrecht broadcasts all council meetings live via the internet. These live streams are coupled to the available documents, allowing viewers to directly see relevant records on the screen. The live stream is part of Utrecht’s transition to digital meetings. Leap to digital Utrecht Municipality has been holding digital meetings since 2013. They were initially established to […]
Meeting trends: what’s hot in 2016?
Recently many “what’s hot” lists are published in the media. What, then, are the trends when it comes to meetings? SCRUM meetings were, for instance, increasingly popular in 2015. And in 2016? I predict the following meeting trends: A fresh breeze through the meeting room During the recent financial crisis we paid less attention to meetings and invested less money in them. This wasn’t always advantageous when it came to inspiration. Although we have primarily held meetings “at home” the last years, the improving economy has led to an increase in external meeting location rentals. One meeting trend for 2016 […]
Lean meetings: how do you accomplish them?
The term “lean” is still hot in many companies. According to Wikipedia “lean” is a management philosophy that is focused upon realizing the maximum value for the client with minimum loss. Expenses are hereby reduced, improving the company results. Lean can also be applied in the area of meetings. And that can result in a major efficiency gain. Efficient meetings Everyone knows that meetings are more than just the discussions. Aside from the planning of a meeting there is also the organization, mailing and reading of documents. And naturally there are agreements and decisions made during the meeting. And don’t […]
Facilitate paperless working! 5 helpful apps
You know them: those colleagues who always have everything under control. They have information at their fingertips on their cell phone or tablet with a single push of a button. They never need to look for the necessary records. A collection of Post-it notes on their desk? No way. Does it seem like heaven to you to be so organized? There are various apps that can help you to work smarter. Notebooks and memo pads are no longer necessary. You don’t have to waste time while looking for the correct memo. In no time, you too will have all of […]
Meeting 3.0: 4 meeting trends
Two of my friends got new jobs this month, both of them for companies that work without a physical office. All of the colleagues work from home or at the client’s office. Every other week the colleagues meet on a Friday morning. They spend this time socializing and naturally discussing the progress of projects, and on other typical meeting tasks. Other companies have embraced teleworking where colleagues are not tied to an office or any specific place. They usually work from home and they thus see each other less at work. And this also often changes the way that they […]
A paperless office: illusion or reality?
Does this happen to you? You can’t see something well on your computer screen and have the urge to use your fingers to zoom in on it, as you would with your I-Pad or smartphone? Or to “swipe” the screen? It doesn’t work because the device doesn’t have that technology, but that doesn’t occur to you… We take it for granted, the amazing technology that we all have at our fingertips, but who could have imagined 20 years ago that the world would be like this in 2016…? It is possible that you have also never heard of the World […]
