Meetings.

Many organizations, and many individuals, have hate/hate relationships with meetings. People hate attending meetings. People also hate to be excluded from meetings. Since so many of us spend so much time in meetings, meetings are expensive. The skills for high quality meetings are valuable. The skill to lead meetings is facilitation. Whether you are a leader or a follower in most of your meetings, it’s valuable to distinguish a good meeting from a bad meeting.

To get you started on maximizing the value of your meetings, consider this list.

• Quantity of people to invite

• Quantity of people attending

• Punctuality

• Agenda

• Preparation / Readiness

• Relevant documentation

• Desired combination of divergent thinking versus convergent thinking

• Churn

• Monopolization, Inclusion, Exclusion

• Listening

• Pace / Intensity

• Navigating awkwardness

• Distractions, multi-tasking

• Decisiveness

• Ambiguity

Armed with the right skills, you can influence your organization’s meeting culture into a love/love relationship. Your goal is that you and your whole ensemble are able to say, “I love that we are talking about this, and I love who was included.”