Category: Meeting techniques

Break through meeting traditions and save more time: 3 tips

Date: 25 August 2016

The Netherlands has many nice traditions. We like good company, celebrating St Nicholas, food automats, raw herring and now we have all gotten used to celebrating King’s Day instead of Queens’ Day. These are some of the good traditions. But we also have customs that are not so good. For example, take those endless meetings. Thanks to our democratic genes, we often discuss and compromise far longer than necessary. 60 billion euros a year spent on meetings The average Dutch employee spends 6 ½ hours a week in meetings and the higher up you are in the organization, the more […]

Lean management: in the public sector too?

Date: 18 August 2016

In recent years, many commercial organizations have undergone major improvements by working Lean. Lean working is a method in which all wastage in a process is eliminated in order to achieve maximum value. Removing wastage from the process lowers costs, which leads to improvement in corporate result. Smart, lean management Since its inception, this lean way of managing has not only become important for commercial organizations. Owing to budgetary pressure and an increasing demand for transparency by the public, the public sector is having to make even further cuts. So it’s high time to lower costs and improve quality. But […]

5 tips for meetings with an Olympic touch

Date: 11 August 2016

A summer when the Olympic Games take place always has a bit of extra atmosphere. Who in Holland can forget the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney when the Netherlands won no less than 12 gold medals, thanks largely to the feats of Pieter van den Hoogenband, Inge de Bruijn and Leontien Van Moorsel? It takes quite a lot to win such a medal. A top athlete’s entire life focuses on training programs and optimum fitness. But good focus is also important in meetings. Did you know that a person’s maximum attention span is only 45 minutes? So for the best […]

Optimum meetings at the end of the working day: 4 tips

Date: 4 August 2016

For many professionals for whom meetings are commonplace, the working day doesn't end at 17.00 hours. Whether you work at a comprehensive school, hospital, government institution or commercial company: it's not always possible to get all colleagues together in the daytime. Other things often just need to be done from 9 to 5. Evening meetings? They're everywhere! After a hard day's work however, the clogged conference lurks just around the corner. Not in your veins this time, but in your organization. Especially when faced with regularly recurring and time-consuming meetings. Are you ready to clear the clogging in the conference […]

4 shortcuts to stop the gridlocked meeting habit

Date: 31 May 2016

Do you also wonder sometimes how you can spend less of your time in meetings? You aren’t the only one! Many organizations are examining smarter ways to work and meet. Some organizations have even decided to eliminate meetings all together. Instead, they align one-on-one. The Dutch clothing concern Zalando is an example of this. Abolishing meetings isn’t suitable for all organizations, but reducing them is a definite possibility. With the following tips you can find shortcuts to avoid the gridlocked meeting “habit.” Tip 1: be critical Weekly meetings: most organizations have them, but are they always necessary? If you examine […]

4 tips to sprint through meetings

Date: 24 May 2016

Many records will surely be broken during the Olympic games in Rio this summer. Everything revolves around speed and muscle power. Many organizations can learn from that. Take, for instance, the tempo of meetings. Surely there is room for improvement, right? Particularly if you note that the average employee sits an astonishing 6.5 hours a week at the conference table!! If you can boost the efficiency of meetings. Result: enormous time-savings. With the following tips your meetings will run in record time! How to limit your meeting time Tip 1: Active meeting team No Olympic performance is purely individual: it […]

High-speed meeting minutes: 6 handy tips

Date: 9 May 2016

Just imagine: never having to take minutes again! How great would that be? Sorry to burst your bubble. Taking minutes is, and will likely always remain, a necessary evil. You know as well as anyone, that proper minutes--including clear lists of decisions and action points--ensure that the subsequent meeting flows faultlessly. Unfortunately, we cannot erase the necessity of taking minutes, but the following tips will help you to take them much more quickly! Here are 6 tips for efficient meeting minutes-taking. Tip 1: Clear agenda With a clear agenda, you simplify life significantly. It saves a lot of irritation. If the […]

Don’t tumble into these 5 meeting pitfalls!

Date: 16 February 2016

Family friends booked their summer vacation already months ago: a boat trip on the Amazon. This has been their dream destination for years. After all of the commotion over the Zika virus, though, they decided to postpone the trip. They are concerned that not all of the details about the virus are known. This provides an unsafe feeling: so many hazards and risks that they cannot oversee. I’d do the same, after all prevention is better than cure! The same is true with meetings. If you are aware of the following pitfalls, you can avoid a lot of meeting pain. […]

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