Business Meetings- the value of the process
Posted on Wed, Dec 16, 2009
Recently a group of meeting planners, suppliers and colleaugues met in downtown Ottawa, Canada to talk about Delivering Measurable Business Results from Meetings and Events.
The discussion began with results from a recent poll that had been conducted by Dr. Richard Flanagan - author of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning - that asked people about the outcomes of meetings and events in which
they had participated.
The results were encouraging with 60-80% of participants reporting they tried what they learned and 20% of respondents reporting they had used what they learned and achieved clearly demonstrable results.
Meetings are a worthwhile process as they can lead to significant change in activities or a reinforcement of positive activity.
I did a survey throughout our office on the value of the meeting process and here are the results;
- It is a sharing of ideas
- Sharing of knowledge
- Networking opportunities
- Can be a lot of fun
- Location can provide insight and inspiration
- Meetings are a great setting for people to break out of their silos and allows an opportunity to communicate ideas
- Provides opportunities to work as teams achieving positive results - meetings are a great setting for this
- Keeping updated on work matters
- Keeping track of individual and team progress
- Helps in team decision making
- Relay specific information regarding target, subject or trend
- Strengthen bonds and networks
- Provides team members with a sense of unity
- Face to face interaction is more successful than virtual meetings or interaction as it allows for the important non- verbal communication component
"Meetings are an investment"... you have inputs which are the preparation, the meeting itself, an application or action and the outputs/results or returns. Meetings are essential for productive progression in organizations, companies, governments etc... it is a necessary element for collaboration, innovation and the sharing of ideas. The question that needs to be asked is not the importance of meetings but how to make meetings even more productive. The answer is the PROCESS.
Stay tuned, the next posting will look at ways to make meetings more productive through processes.
What are your thoughts on the value or importance of meetings to the success of an organization?