Meeting the meeting standard.

A significant proportion of my working week is spent in meetings. Probably around fifty percent I would suggest. Mostly these are regular meetings for updating stakeholders on project status in one form or another; they are review forums or man management contact sessions. Given the productive time available outside of meetings one has to question whether attendance is necessary. It is also increasingly clear that not only should the necessity be assessed but also the value added by attendance. On many occasions in the past it has been enough just to turn up to most meetings, unprepared and still feel able to make some form of meaningful contribution. But as the landscape becomes increasingly complex and the volume of information ever greater; that lack of preparation becomes highly visible. The conclusion I have drawn from this is that time must be allocated to meeting preparation. Given that this may mean that even more precious time is consumed, it makes the need to prioritise even more crucial. I am even inclined to conclude that if the time to assemble ones thoughts doesn't add value to the working day then should the meeting be attended at all. So my proposal is to look through the diary and assess whether arranging things for each particular appointment would make a useful contribution to the overall workload. It would also have to be a positive contribution to strategic goals rather than just effort for the sake of it. What Kotter calls genuine urgency rather than false urgency. So from now on there is a need to baseline the important meetings and find time for constructive preparation whilst removing the unnecessary meetings from the diary. Setting a standard to be met before meeting.