Friday, October 22, 2010  Bored? Call a Meeting  There are just
too many people holding meetings because they really have
nothing else to do.  Let's be clear: when it's time to make a
decision and a number of people get a vote, or you need to share
a lot of information with a group at once, then a meeting is a
useful thing. There's a way to do it right, of course: have a
purpose, have an agenda, get in and do your thing and get out.
Don't drag it out, and don't involve people who don't have some
good reason for being there, either as a contributor or as
someone who needs to use the results of the meeting in their
job.  If you're having a meeting just to feel like you're doing
something, you're wasting time. You're wasting yours, and other
people's, and affecting even more people who may need you to
actually be doing something rather than just sitting around.  If
you go home at night and say, "Honey, I had a productive day, I
was in meetings for 8 hours," then your definition of
"productive" and mine are very,