13: Meetings

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Page ID: 172691

US Air Force
US Department of Defense

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This chapter covers:

Planning an Effective Meeting
Running Your Meeting
Group Dynamics and Fun

All of us attend meetings. Some of us feel we attend too many of them. Others may be conducting more business electronically and attending fewer meetings than in the past. But, in today’s world of trying to do things "faster and smarter," technology is not always all it’s cracked up to be. How many times have you e-mailed someone who works 20 feet or one office away? Have you ever spent 20 minutes to write an e-mail to four people to discuss a topic that would take 2 minutes of a meeting? Despite the surge in electronic staffing, there is no substitute for the human element found in meetings; thus it is unlikely they will ever be completely replaced.

So why does the mere word "meeting" strike a nerve in so many of us? Perhaps because we’ve all attended so many that were so inefficient. But meetings don’t have to be that way; there are ways to make them better! If they are done right, they can go a long way in helping your organization run more efficiently. Simply put, meetings are used to share information, solve problems, plan, brainstorm or motivate. Whatever the purpose, it’s good to know some basics about conducting an effective meeting. That’s what this chapter is all about.