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meeting-mesyuarat-taklimat-chitchat-syarahan-conference
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Can  anybody tell me any meeting that you would not miss for all the" water in Klang Valley"?If you are like most of us who would rather not attend or rather delegate to an assistant,I don't blame you.And yet,how many of us have to waste our time attending various committee meetings.The higher you are in government bureaucracy or corporate ladder,the more meetings you have to attend,most of the time leaving less than 50% of your office time to do *your* work.Take 25% of the balance for unaccounted normal time wasters (drop-ins,chit-chat etc),you will be left with the last 25%.

Another observation:Meeting is very expensive activity,even though the attendees are only served with teh tarik and curry-puffs.Just calculate  cost of the people attending the meeting,the amount can be mind- boggling.I think it is quite timely now to reduce the number meetings to absolute neccesity  at least for two reasons(unless you enjoy attending the meetings;-)

1.Reduce cost/ wastages of limited resources,so that we can concentrate on our real work.

2.The technology is available to enable us to "meet" online for whatever is the purpose of the meeting.

I am not saying ALL meetings are a waste of time.Some are really necessary.However,if we really put our thoughts to it and examine the rationale for having a meeting,I believe a lot of them can be avoided.

When I was a government officer some years ago,most of the meeting comes under these categories:

1.Briefing by senior officer
2.Reporting by junior officers
3.Reporting and discussion with other heads of depts.
4.Project management
5.Decison making

and similar categories apply also for private sector with one more additional subject:corporate and finance.

My experience showed that the Pareto Principle still applies in meetings:

1.Only 20% of attendees participate,the rest just listen or sleep while munching some cakes with coffee or tea.

2.Only 20% are useful talks,the rest are more suited to teh tarik stalls.

3.Only 20% of those in the agenda really fit to be there.The rest can be done by others means.

4.Less than 20% of those who attend want to be there,the rest would rather watch a movie.

5.More than 80% are idling most of the time-they have no clues what the hell is going on.

6.More than 80% don't bother to follow up after the meeting,except checking on it again a day before the next meeting.

7.More than 80% thinks the chairman is talking too much.

8.More than 80% thinks the chairman already make a decision prior to the meeting.The meeting is used to justify or sanctify his decision.

9.If the boss is chairing the meeting,everyone will agree during the meeting,but 80% will say no after the meeting.

....need I go any further?You make your own list.It must be longer than mine.

From my personal observations,the way meetings being held everyday in our offices/schools etc. have not changed very much despite the availability of current communication technology.There is a big gap between the usage of technology and what the technology had to offer.Old habits die hard.

One tip from a management guru on how to shorten the meeting:Call for a meeting in a room where no chairs and desks are available.Why not you try it,and let me know how it goes.My former boss told me that he delegated all the 'stupid' meetings to his deputy.Luckily I resigned before I got the promotion to be his deputy.(Please don't ask me who was his deputy."Ask me no questions,and I tell you no lies")

Better still,use 20% of IT facilities and reduce the number of meetings by 80%.-a new  version of Pareto Principle.
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If you insist to have a meeting,go head.It is *your* time and not mine.I would rather read a good book or ride a bike.
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