Once when I was interviewed on television about my book, PerfectTIMING, the interviewer asked me what the ideal length of a meeting is. I said,
“Shorter than the Last One”
I really believe that sometimes our meetings start to get longer and longer and we don’t even think about making them 15-30minutes shorter. And having a shorter meeting doesn’t always mean you are leaving out valuable information.
Whenever I do Stand-Up Meetings I find that we cover all the essential information, but people get to the point, and we end up with a shorter meeting.
I thought of this concept the other day during mass. This Sunday and the previous one we had two different priests.
PRIEST # 1:
I think he felt we weren’t getting our “collections-worth” if he didn’t talk for about 30 minutes. The result was that he made a statement and then said it nine different ways. At the end I think people were confused about what his point was—just like me.
PRIEST # 2:
This was a visiting, retired priest who delivered his homily in about 4 minutes. He made a wonderful point and people applauded him afterward. If they were like me, they were applauding for two reasons. Reason # 1 is that he made a great point. Reason #2 was that he kept it short and concise.
How about you?
How long are your meetings going to be this week?
Try shortening them and see what reaction you get. You may be even more popular (and effective) than you already are.