Limiting Worthless Meetings

There are some simple tips to follow to make your meetings valuable and avoid wasting people's time, says Harvard Business Review.

The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org. Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.

"A common complaint people have about work is that they are often forced to suffer through worthless meetings. Yet, meetings are an important way to get work done.

Instead of wasting people's time, follow these three steps to make your meeting valuable to attendees:

1. Keep it small. Only invite people who need to attend and who can directly help achieve the meeting's objectives.

2. Prepare and circulate an agenda. Without an agenda, you'll no doubt waste time agreeing on what you are there to do and how you'll do it

3. Be mindful of time. Always underestimate how much a group can accomplish. Keep the meeting as short as possible while still achieving its objectives. If you go late, don't hold people captive, schedule a follow up meeting."

-Today's management tip was adapted from the Harvard ManageMentor Online Module, "Meeting Management."