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“Working with Eric was a pleasure. We developed a good rapport and established a level of honesty and trust. I valued his counsel and recommendations. I find Eric to be very competent in a variety of disciplines. He is able to correctly diagnose organizational problems and suggest solutions that are on point. I found Eric to be a professional with the highest levels of honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior. I would not hesitate to engage his services again in the future.”

Kathy Lueckert,
former Corporate Services Director,
Department of Planning and Development,
City of Seattle
(Kathy is now Director of Planning and Finance for Advocacy and Communications at World Vision.)

“I've worked closely with Eric on developing and presenting the Leadership Eastside community leadership program. He has that rare blend of extensive real-world experience along with a very strong background in theory and research. He moves easily between big picture strategy and the tactical details. Eric brings a superb ability to plan, execute and follow-through, both as a behind-the-scenes planner and as an upfront instructor and facilitator.”

Annalee Luhman,
founding board member,
Leadership Eastside

 

Conflict and change: The blog

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9 June 2008

Kill your staff meeting

Is your staff meeting the highlight of your week, or something to be endured? If you dread staff meetings, you’re not alone.

Staff meetings I’ve attended as an employee and watched as a consultant share have one tragic flaw: too much time is devoted to going around to the table to have people describe what they are doing. These updates seem to go on forever. People have generally not organized their comments; they don't know what their point is. And, many go on and on; few folks pay attention to time. Go through six 5-minute updates, and you’ve burned a half hour of valuable time.

Here’s where I make a radical suggestion: Save the precious meeting time for real-time problem solving, where you need active participation to deal with some programmatic concern or even an interpersonal misunderstanding. In other words, don’t do updates.

“Then, how do we make sure everyone’s up to speed on what’s happening?” You update people outside the meetings using e-mail updates or a weekly report. These are things that your staff can read on their own time and at their own pace. Writing usually disciplines people to stick to the knitting and reduces the chances of going off on tangents. By briefing people asynchronously, you preserve staff meeting time for the really important stuff: tough issues, pressing problems, resolving conflicts.

In this day and age—with heavy workloads, double-booked schedules, frequent travel, and flexible work hours—team meeting time is at a premium. Don't waste that time just briefing each other when you could be dealing with important stuff.