Ways to Prevent Going to a Meeting by Meggin McIntosh, PhD
Productive people are aware and proactive when they are invited to meetings. If you get invited to a meeting (or are generally expected to be there) for no other reason than the convener thinks you…
- “ought to be there,”
- “have always attended,”
- “might be interested,” or because he/she
- “would like your reactions to the meeting,”
…avoid automatically acquiescing to these requests and expectations. Use some of the following tips to ensure that your attendance at a meeting is worth your time, effort, and energy.
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Be crystal clear on what your job is and what your job isn’t.
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Eliminate the meetings that do not directly affect your roles and responsibilities.
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When you are invited to a meeting, ask why you have been invited.
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Once you get the answer on why you’ve been invited and if it’s clear that your presence is not really required or worthwhile, offer a reason why you will not be in attendance.
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Offer to send your ideas to the meeting convener via email or in some other written form.
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Schedule time to do your work so that when a meeting is scheduled that truly doesn’t require your attendance, you can legitimately say, “I already have something scheduled at that time.”
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Explain to others why you are avoiding meetings–in a positive, proactive way.
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Encourage others to avoid calling meetings unless essential.
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Gain clarity on what is worth holding a meeting for and what isn’t.
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Positively create a culture of finding solutions without meetings.
You could positive affect the overall productivity of your business, school, or agency by changing the culture of meetings. That’s a pretty good legacy, I’d say.
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