The Hidden Etiquette of Meetings

It’s 3:30 and you glance down at your phone to check your schedule for the rest of the afternoon… Booked solid until 5pm (again). Not a lot a free time available to get work done between all these meetings.

Do you constantly struggle with how to get work done with all of meetings you attend. Are you an avid GTD junky, do you align yourself to Zen Habits principles of simplification, if Merlin Mann ran for president would he get your vote? Like you and millions of other knowledge workers, I have to battle the day-to-day meeting crunch of spending more than 25% of my time in meetings, I tried to squeeze as much effectiveness out of meetings as possible.
As you have grown in your career you have most likely uncovered a lot of little tricks to run your meetings better. Over the next few posts we are going to explore a few of the often overlooked areas of meeting etiquette.
The “Hidden Etiquette of Meetings” that we are are going to cover include:

• Meeting Flow – How should we handle Introductions, Framing, Clarifying, and Conclusion?
• Pressing Issues In Meetings – When is it OK to have sidebar or bring up discussion items that are not on the agenda?
• Technology in Meetings – What Level of technology in meetings is acceptable?
• When To Invite / When To Attend – What are the rules about inviting certain people to meetings? When is is OK to decline a meeting?
• When To Talk / When To Listen – How do you structure your meetings so people know when to talk and when to contribute?
• Hidden Roles and Responsibilities – Does everyone understand their role in the meetings?

We look forward to your feedback on these areas of meeting etiquette, as well as any other suggestions on how to improve meetings.
Stay Tuned…