Meetings are famous for eating up and sometimes wasting people's time. Below is a list of characteristics of negative meetings followed by some tips on how to have an effective meeting.

Characteristics of Negative Meetings* 

83% - Drifting off subject

77% - Poor preparation

74% - Questionable effectiveness

68% - Lack of listening

62% - Verbosity of participants

60% - Length

51% - Lack of preparation 

We’ve all been in meetings where we find ourselves growing impatient as someone gets off topic or someone arrives late and disrupts the flow. 

Steps to More Productive Meetings

• Start on time.

• Assign someone to take the minutes.

• Don't recap what you've covered if someone comes in late.

• Review and stick to the agenda.

• State a finish time for the meeting and don't go over. Arrange your agenda in order of importance to avoid having to drop or hurry items at the end to make the finish time. 

• If you’ve covered everything on the agenda before the finish time, go ahead and end the meeting. Otherwise, end on time.

• Send out the meeting minutes.