Polite Meetings are a Waste of Time
Poorly run, ineffective meetings frustrate everyone except the people running them.
Recently, I interviewed Robert Herbold, former chief operating officer of Microsoft and author of “What’s Holding You Back.” Bob’s quiet, gentlemanly tone shifted toward disdain when I brought up wasting time in poorly run meetings.
I loved hearing him explain, “Many meetings are useless religious ceremonies controlled by highly organized, meaningless ritual after meaningless ritual.”
Effective structure:
I asked Bob how he ran meetings and he mentioned Bill Gates’ method at Microsoft.
- Have short agendas. Leave plenty of room for discussion. In ...