efficient meetings (credit: http://www.ilovenewwork.com)

One of the skills I developed the most while at the European Space Agency was how to manage my time,  have EXTREME respect for others time and ALWAYS have clear agendas and objectives for meetings.

Translating this into actions:

• Nobody would wait for you if you were more than 5 minutes late for a meeting.
• Every meeting would have a concise agenda with clearly stated objectives.
• People would terminate a meeting at the exact time it was scheduled to end. To me this point was far more important than the start time. People could not keep on discussing forever and were forced to make decisions if they intended to go through all the items in the agenda. I was always amused on how the last 10 minutes of each meeting were extremely productive.

Well, contrast this to the horror I am experiencing in Portugal. People are always late for their scheduled meetings, most of the times have no idea of the objectives of meetings and there is no time for a meeting to end.

Today I have experienced the following behavior:

• A meeting was scheduled for 14:30. I arrived 5 min earlier. Waited outside. The person I was waiting for signals that he is just finishing a conversation with someone. OK I think we have 5 mins. Well..the meeting only started at 15:00 and that after I almost threatened to leave!!! All this while the person was happily chatting away!!
• Another meeting I was invited to. Although there was no written agenda (my fault) I assumed that it would be a follow up from a previous meeting. To my surprise the team I was meeting with states: “we have really not thought about the xyz subject” but still wanted to have the meeting!!! What was the pointing of having a meeting then if the homework was not done!! Waste of time..

While these might seem little details I find them to be extremely important for the efficiency of an organization and society. I have spent a substantial chunk of my afternoon either forcing people to start a meeting or “chit chatting” with people because they have not done their home work and the meeting has no clear and objective goals…

Now, you pile up these little details and multiple by the entire population and you get with some organizations/countries are far more productive than others…