Share this post

March 17, 2011

Topic: Administrative Management

Reference: Glickman, Jodi. “Scheduling a Meeting the Right Way.” http://blogs.hbr.org/glickman/2011/03/scheduling-a-meeting-the-right.html

With all of the technology tools now available for business, the number of resources at your immediate disposal is off the charts. I just downloaded a Smartphone application that turns my phone into a strobe or flashlight. I can talk dictation and turn it into a mail message. The convenience of the applications and the tools is just great to have. However, the one thing that remains a problem is to easily schedule meetings. Even though you can send me an invite via email, post it to a work space, or leave me a voice message, it still seems to take a lot of effort to get the right subset of people on a call, viewing a presentation, or videoconferencing solutions to a business problem. One of the reasons is that scheduling a meeting is not longer in specifically in anyone’s core skill set. Few people have administrative assistants or support personnel anymore. People are highly mobile and more likely to be in the field, working with clients, or out of core workspace than at almost any previous point in time. I also believe that there is a general resistance to meetings since so many of them seem to accomplish very little and yet they are regularly scheduled. Some really believe that meetings are work and not what you do between getting the work accomplished.  In the referenced article, the commentator addresses this subject matter and generally agrees that pulling together meetings is a critical skill to tie into. “No doubt the scheduling of meetings has become the bane of many a junior professional's existence. This role didn't use to fall in our court and in theory shouldn't be that hard. Yet coordinating calendars can become treacherous.” The commentator’s suggestions for handling the scheduling problem are excellent. They include: don’t blindly offer open dates to everyone; make sure that the meetings are scheduled around the key attendees; and to keep a paper trail. I’d add a few more things like avoid scheduling meetings on Mondays or Fridays; avoid scheduling meetings late in the day; and be sure to have an agenda sent out in advance to expedite and track production. The bottom line is finding ways to more easily schedule meetings and to get more out of them is more critical now than ever.