Saturday, September 6, 2008

A Good Meeting - Three elements

A good meeting is very simple. A good meeting consists of three key elements, rapid information sharing, decision making and planning for decision implementation. The best meeting consists of all three. The last component of a good meeting does not happen in the meeting, and that is implementation and enforcement of the decisions and action plans that result from the meeting.

A good meeting can consist of the subset of elements. An information only meeting can be viewed as either education or opinion-shaping for decision makers.

A decision making meeting, I believe, always has some level of information sharing, if only in review of the current status or knowledge. If decision implementation planning is not accomplished in the meeting, though, clear timeframes for the completion of this critical action is paramount.

A decision implementation meeting can occur, but must be proceeded by the decision making.

We can have further discussion of meeting pace and tempo another time, but the three elements above are crucial to the best of meetings.