The Odds of Meeting Naps

I slept late this morning.  I am blaming part of it on the weather, which is cool and rainy.  I am blaming another part of it on yesterday’s flu shot.  I will blame a third part of it on “because I could”. The rain definitely has me in a lazy fall mood. I am currently in the office and I came back from lunch in a steady rain.  It was nice walking across the parking lot with big drops of rain popping on my jacket.  I love the sky, a broken blue lined with cumulus clouds, painted in shades of white and gray.

Work has been pretty good today. I started the day with a small avalanche of things, but managed to maneuver my way through them. I had a meeting cancel, so it is a two meeting day, which is pretty rare.  On an average day I attend about five hours worth of meetings.  The light meeting schedule means I’ve had the opportunity to make some progress today.  I still have a handful of things that I need to work my way through, but the afternoon is mostly clear, so I should be able to make a little more headway.

I was joking with one of my co-workers today that, as a corporation, we could probably save millions of dollars a year if we could do just one thing – stay on topic in our meetings.  When it comes to meetings, there are a bare handful of things you can which will vastly increase the value of your meetings.  Let’s call them Rod’s Rules of Meetings.

Rule One:  Restrict meetings to one topic.

Rule Two: Always publish an agenda at least one full working day prior to the meeting.

Rule Three:  If you have hand-outs or presentation materials, distribute them with the agenda.

Rule Four: Only invite people who have a clear and compelling business need to attend.

Rule Five: Keep actual meeting minutes.

Now, if you can do even one of those five things, you will significantly improve the quality and content of any meetings you host or are involved in.  And the odds are that I will nap in your meeting are much smaller.