Wombats! Or - Oh No, Another Meeting!
by Dana Bristol-Smith
 

Is your company experiencing WOMBATS? No, I’m not talking about the furry creatures from Australia. But one of the newest business-speak acronyms.
 
WOMBAT – Waste of money, brains and time.
 
We’re talking about meetings here – and hopefully your company’s meetings aren’t WOMBATs.

 
Here are some guidelines to help keep your meetings on track and productive.
 
To determine if a meeting is necessary, ask these questions.

• Do we need to make a decision?
• Do we need to hear from different departments or from the whole team?
• If the purpose of the meeting is to share information, could that be done via email instead?
• Is a meeting the most efficient use of our time?
   

Now that you’ve determined that a meeting is necessary follow these steps:
 
Before your meeting

1. Determine who needs to be at the meeting.
2. Set a clear objective. This is the outcome that you want the meeting to achieve.
3. Design the agenda. Next to each major topic, include the type of action needed such as a decision, vote, or action assigned to someone.
4. Distribute the agenda in advance.
    

1. Start on time.
2. Assign a recorder to take notes.
3. Supply the agenda and review it together.
4. Share your expectations of your participant’s behavior such as; participate, stay on topic, don’t cut people off or monopolize the conversation.
5. Manage the meeting by staying on topic.
6. Be willing to address participants who go off topic.
7. Use questions to engage participants.
8. Close the meeting with a summary with actions that will be taken and who will take them.
9. Set dates for followup.
10. Thank your participants for their input.
     

1. Send the meeting summary to each participant.
2. Complete your action items.
    

About the Author
Dana Bristol-Smith is the founder of Speak for Success, an organization that works with companies that want their people to communicate with confidence and credibility. You can email Dana at:dana@speakforsuccess.net

Home