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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is about how to make sure meetings and done

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Speaker 1: time and accomplish what they are supposed to do even

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Speaker 1: if you are not in charge. There are ways to

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Speaker 1: help everyone stick to the agenda and avoid wasting time.

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Speaker 1: So meetings are necessary when decisions need to be made,

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Speaker 1: it is unlikely that everyone will magically show up at

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Speaker 1: the same time with the right preparation to make those decisions.

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Speaker 1: That said, I don't need to tell anyone who listens

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Speaker 1: to this podcast that many organizations have too many meetings

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Speaker 1: and those meetings are often less of effective than they

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Speaker 1: could be. That is a problem because if you waste

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Speaker 1: your own time, that is one thing. If he brings

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Speaker 1: six people to gather and waste their time, that gets

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Speaker 1: a lot more costly. One of the biggest problems with

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Speaker 1: meetings is that the discussions aren't focused until the last

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Speaker 1: few minutes when people finally realize that they need to

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Speaker 1: get moving, which inevitably makes people late for the next thing.

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Speaker 1: The best way to avoid that is to stick to

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Speaker 1: the agenda, making sure you have plenty of time for

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Speaker 1: whatever the most important part of the discussion will be.

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Speaker 1: Of course, this requires that there be an agenda. Every

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Speaker 1: meeting needs a purpose that is a desired outcome and

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Speaker 1: an agenda meaning how you will use your time to

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Speaker 1: gather to achieve that desired outcome. Hopefully your meeting has one,

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Speaker 1: but if not, get in the habit of creating a

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Speaker 1: time before all meetings you run for creating agenda and

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Speaker 1: then sending it out. Ideally at least twenty four hours before.

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Speaker 1: The agenda should say what is being covered and how

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Speaker 1: much time is devoted to each thing, with the goal

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Speaker 1: of ending a few minutes before the meeting itself is ending.

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Speaker 1: If you are not in charge, get in the habit

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Speaker 1: of checking at least twenty four hours before any meetings

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Speaker 1: to see if there is an agenda, so you know

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Speaker 1: what is going to happen. If you don't see one,

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Speaker 1: this is when you need to get moving. You can

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Speaker 1: reach out to the person organizing the meeting and note

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Speaker 1: that you want to be prepared, so you just want

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Speaker 1: to make sure you didn't miss the agenda. If the

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Speaker 1: person is swamped or high enough up that you can't

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Speaker 1: readily do this, ask the person's assistant to help. There

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Speaker 1: is never anything wrong with saying you want to be

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Speaker 1: prepared for a meeting. Hopefully this will flush out an agenda.

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Speaker 1: If not, and it seems appropriate, you can offer to

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Speaker 1: help draft one. Reach out to the other people who

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Speaker 1: will be there to get an approximate sense of what

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Speaker 1: needs to be covered and how much time everyone needs.

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Speaker 1: If the person running the meeting is truly overwhelmed at

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Speaker 1: the moment, this can be helpful. If you get to

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Speaker 1: the meeting and there still is no agenda. If there

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Speaker 1: is any sort of icebreaker or introductions at the beginning,

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Speaker 1: use your time to check. You can frame this as

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Speaker 1: I want to make sure I am most helpful here,

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Speaker 1: or I just want to clarify so I am sure

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Speaker 1: I brought the right things, and get the organizer to

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Speaker 1: pin everything down. If you are running meetings, always appoint

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Speaker 1: a timekey. This is someone whose job is to keep

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Speaker 1: everyone to the agenda. Now. Obviously, if circumstances warrant it,

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Speaker 1: more time could be spent on something, but having a

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Speaker 1: timekeeper creates an obvious momentum to move on to the

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Speaker 1: next thing. The default is to stay on track, rather

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Speaker 1: than to not stay on track. If you aren't running

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Speaker 1: the meeting and there is any sort of agenda, offer

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Speaker 1: to be the timekeeper. You can just offer this at

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the meeting. Would it be helpful if

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Speaker 1: I did the timekeeping here? Or you can bring it

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Speaker 1: up during any introductions. I'm happy to help keep us

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Speaker 1: on track here, as I know some people have things

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Speaker 1: right afterwards. Again, it is always framed as being of

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Speaker 1: service when people do meander during the meetings. You can

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Speaker 1: just nudge things along nicely. Jan, I can get you

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Speaker 1: that material right afterwards. Now about the marketing stuff, most

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Speaker 1: people probably aren't actively trying to run meandering inefficient meetings.

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Speaker 1: They aren't trying to waste people's time, They just aren't

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Speaker 1: thinking about it. This is where you can help. But

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Speaker 1: if things have been meandering and you're getting toward the

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Speaker 1: end of a meeting, you can try to reorient things

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Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty minutes before the end by pointing out

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Speaker 1: the time. I know we have some people who are

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Speaker 1: having to race out after this. I wanted to make

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Speaker 1: sure we figured out this and hopefully get everyone back

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Speaker 1: on track. Obviously, it takes more work to run a

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Speaker 1: meeting with a defined purpose, a solid agenda, and then

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Speaker 1: a commitment to stick to the agenda. When we do that,

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Speaker 1: we can't have too many meetings, but that's not a

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Speaker 1: bad thing. When you bring people together, it should be worthwhile.

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Speaker 1: Sticking to the agenda that much more likely. In the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.