Classic signs of someone derailing the meeting
A little while back, I received an email for an upcoming meeting. The email had an attached agenda that detailed the topics to be discussed, the attendees, and the desired outcome of the meeting. Sounds like the start to a great meeting, right? When I showed up to the meeting, the facilitator gave a brief review of the agenda to get everyone thinking about what we would talk about. Still on the right track! What a prepared facilitator! She did a great job getting everyone prepared for the meeting so it could be a success! Beware of the person derailing the meeting…
So the meeting should’ve gone perfect from there with every topic discussed and all points addressed within the time frame specified right? Well, not quite. We started into the first agenda item and one person asked a few questions about a point that wasn’t really related to the meeting. The classic start to someone derailing the meeting. From there, everyone in the meeting began talking about that topic and going into related details. It wasn’t long before the originally scheduled meeting wasn’t happening, probably no more than 10 minutes into the meeting. We were having a completely different meeting with the original agenda out the window.
Have you ever sat through a meeting like that? The meeting facilitator was well prepared with the agenda items. She also had everything lined out, so that everyone would stay on track. The problem, however, came down to the execution of the meeting.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, Meet The Meeting Killers, by Sue Shellenbarger that discussed five types of people that are always guilty of derailing the meeting. [Read more…] about Avoid Derailing The Meeting