3X Your Productivity - Use Powerful and Common Sense Secrets for a Productive Meeting: By Costas Chantzis

1. Tired of wasting time in meetings? Try this
Published on 2017-02-26
Costas Chantzis
Always Excellence (tm) - Expert - FDA Remediation & Quality, NPD, LSS, Transformation
Strategies/Results
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tired-wasting-time-meetings-try-oisin-grogan?trk=v-feed&trk=v-
feed&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BNWesrbJI6gCjYojD9%2FE0fw%3D%3D
"Tired of wasting time in meetings? Try this" by Oisín Grogan, September 27, 2016
Like -107,897; Comment - 3,283; Share - 40,018
A friend of mine says people hate meetings because:
They don’t start on time..
They don’t finish on time..
What’s in the middle is a waste of time!
It’s true--many meetings are a waste of time! Unproductive meetings can cost your business big time. 5
people x 1 hour = 5 hours. Multiply that by everyone’s hourly value. You better be increasing
production or don’t hold it. It's not just the wasted hours, it’s the lost production time. Unnecessary
meetings are a double loss, when they are not effective... Here’s a few tips on how to have shorter and
more effective meetings:
1. Define the purpose of the meeting.
2. Define the outcome of the meeting.
3. Have a timed agenda and someone in charge.
4. Facts--not opinions!
5. Keep people on-point. (Only talk about matters relating to their job)
Response by Costas Chantzis:
Interesting article containing a few common sense rules. Most of the posted 3,283 comments believe
the above approach is a great guide BUT I have a different prospective on a number of points,
specifically:
Rules # 4 - Facts --- not opinions and # 5 - Keep people on-point. (Only talk about matters relating to
their job), can/must NOT apply to meetings related to Brain Storming, Root Cause Analysis,
Generation of New Product Ideas, Ways to Improve Teamwork/ Collaboration, other type of
Improvement and/or similar such activities. If we put people in a "box" and restrict them of expressing
themselves "properly", then we limit flow of creativity and spring-boarding towards a desired outcome.

2. In ANY meeting, its participants must be free to express themselves both using facts and opinions as
long as they communicate which are "facts" and which are "opinions."
In ANY meeting, its participants must be free to express themselves even about issues NOT related to
their jobs on the condition they are able to justify their statements/position properly using "fact" and
Opinion" statements.
The secrets to a successful meeting are:
1. Have documented meeting objectives
2. Have a step-by-step agenda
3. Place each expected meeting participant into one ONLY of the following roles:
- Give a specific project update,
- Offer ideas, opinions about a new product, process or for solving a current challenge or for improving
a current process, product, person's performance, situation, etc.
- Review/comment about the presented information as to its validity and completeness,
- Approve an action or make a decision based on the presented information,
- Simply get information for use either in a current or future project.
4. Invite the least number of people possible for accomplishing your meeting's objectives
5. Issue meeting minutes with a follow-up action plan.
Bottom Line:
We MUST use meeting participants not as robots or children in a kinder-garden setting without the
right to express either a fact or opinion but as smart, team building and problem resolution participants
based on a set of rules that stimulate/encourage contribution towards each meeting's SPECIFIC
objectives.
Costas Chantzis
Always Excellence (tm) - Expert - FDA Remediation & Quality, NPD, LSS, Transformation
Strategies/Results
111 articles
0 comments