Please note that most people who attend meetings want to talk about topics, not around them. When you tell us we'll be talking around such and such a topic, many of us despair thinking that we'll never really get to the point. This may often be true but it is far from desirable.
Perhaps if we stop saying that we are going to talk around a topic and instead say we are going to talk about it (indeed, imagine an arrow shooting straight through to the heart of the topic - that's what we want in our meetings!) we'll get more done.
Yours,
Simone.
Yes. Meeting terrorists need to be brought to heel.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't feel embarassed about insisting that the agenda is stuck to, or that if people want to have a 'talk around' that a specific time is specified. You should feel free to say 'point of order, Mr/Mme Chair, is this on the topic? do we really want to talk about this?' A person who uses meetings to think aloud is a complete pest. Most people are usually waiting for someone to shut the pest out, but haven't got the awareness to know how.
Tough love.
And read 'Death by Meeting'.
Like.
DeleteI have this feeling there's a particular situation you'd like to directly address, but have written this general post instead.
ReplyDeleteUnless you attend lots of meetings like this, in which case you do have my sympathy.
It's education speak. Getting on my nerves.
DeleteAll part of the journey, I guess.
ReplyDelete