The Art of the Office Meeting

What is the number two time-sucker of office life, just after excessive emails, Facebook and Twitter messages?? That time-sucker is called office meetings. Everyone gathered around the ?big table? trying to agree on something, ANYTHING. Sometimes it?s amazing that anything ever gets done in some offices.

Ok, so maybe I have no idea if any of what I just said is true. I do know that having too many meetings can prevent the average employee from accomplishing everything they need to in a day. This can often happen in a large office with the goal of trying to keep up with all people and projects. When the meeting time ends up being greater than the actual work-accomplishing-stuff time, that?s when the office meetings have hit an excess.

But having too few staff meetings can shift the dynamic of the office vibe into unsettling territory as well. This can especially be true in a small office. I mean, you talk to these people all day long, why do you need a meeting? The answer: focus. It?s easy for things to get overlooked without some structure in even the smallest office. It?s also easy to ignore tension within the office.

A weekly office meeting is a great time to go through all projects in progress, upcoming, and completed. When the workload is the heaviest is usually when the weekly office meeting is needed most. It?s also a great time to address any issues that may have arisen that week with coworkers or clients. At Moxie, we like to end our meetings with something called ?positives? where we share positive events from the last week, ending the meeting on an up-note.

In any office setting, it is important to gather the team to touch base. The key is finding the balance between office organization and getting all the work done. By keeping everyone in the loop, your office will run much more efficiently. In the end, an office meeting can actually end up saving you time and money. And who doesn?t want that!

At Moxie, we try to practice what we preach. Check us out at www.thinkmoxie.com.

? Post written by Cristy Wiza.