Don't Leave Your Meeting Actions Until The Next Meeting!

Do you get frustrated by this one?

You go to a meeting and find out that people who are meant to have completed their actions haven't done so.

Even worse, they don't have any recollection of the tasks, or they don't understand what their tasks actually mean...

So what can we do with this situation?

We could:

Ask people to respond within 24 hours of the meeting to confirm that they understand the action requests and that they will complete their actions before the next meeting.
Identify those few people who don't deliver and chase them up ourselves.
Hold a 'results' meeting one day before the next meeting (or another suitable time before the meeting) to review the output of their actions, allowing time to sweep up before the next meeting.
Mention the actions at other meetings, to remind people of their obligations.

Whatever route you take you are going to add in extra time to the situation in order to get the results. This however is an opportunity to review how you handle your meetings and the subsequent management of those who don't deliver.

If you suffer from this then take the time to beef up your approach and devise the necessary strategies to get people to deliver on their actions. Some of the above strategies may be suitable short term solutions to help your team form the right habits.

Giles Johnston
...fixing MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

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