In most organizations today meetings occupy a significant amount of space on the daily calendar.

The authors of this research report studied meetings in a variety of organizations to determine which factors resulted in meetings that were viewed as effective and a good use of time.

They found that successful meetings could be identified by the following characteristics:

1. They had a written agenda distributed in advance.
2. The agenda was reviewed at the start of the meeting.
3. Meeting participants were involved during the meeting.
4. The meeting facilities were viewed as appropriate, i.e., good table  arrangement, good lighting and heating, lack of noisy distractions.
5. All the items on the agenda were completed.

It is interesting to note that neither the number of participants at the meeting nor the length of the meeting itself impacted the perceived effectiveness of the meeting.

How much thought goes into the meetings you hold?

Peter Scontrino

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