Hey Bo. Hey Matt. Can you believe we have yet another very special episode coming up?
This one is very close to my heart.
We'll be joined by Friend, the star of the upcoming Wicked film, the one and only Ariana Grande will be here in the studio with us.
We hope this episode of Last Coach gives you so much joy.
The episode is dropping this Wednesday, my birthday, November 6th.
And of course, please go see Wicked when it comes out.
Number 22nd, don't miss it.
Listen to Last Coach Arista's on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning. This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about how to make sure meetings end on time and accomplish what they are supposed to do.
Even if you are not in charge, there are ways to help everyone stick to the agenda and avoid wasting time.
So, meetings are necessary.
When decisions need to be made, it is unlikely that everyone will magically show up at the same time with the right preparation to make those decisions.
That said, I don't need to tell anyone who listens to this podcast that many organizations have too many meetings.
And those meetings are often less effective than they could be.
That is a problem. Because if you waste your own time, that is one thing.
If you bring six people together and waste their time, that gets a lot more costly.
One of the biggest problems with meetings is that the discussions aren't focused until the last few minutes, when people finally realize that they need to get moving, which inevitably makes people late for the next thing.
The best way to avoid that is to stick to the agenda, making sure you have plenty of time for whatever the most important part of the discussion will be.
Of course, this requires that there be an agenda.
Every meeting needs a purpose, that is a desired outcome, and an agenda, meaning how you will use your time together to achieve that desired outcome.
Hopefully your meeting has one.
But if not, get in the habit of creating a time before all meetings you run for creating an agenda and then sending it out, ideally at least 24 hours before.
The agenda should say what is being covered and how much time is devoted to each thing.
With the goal of ending a few minutes before the meeting itself is ending, if you are not in charge, get in the habit of checking at least 24 hours before any meetings to see if there is an agenda so you know what is going to happen.
If you don't see one, this is when you need to get moving.
You can reach out to the person organizing the meeting and note that you want to be prepared.
So you just want to make sure you didn't miss the agenda.
If the person is swamped or high enough up that you can't readily do this, ask the person's assistant to help.
There is never anything wrong with saying you want to be prepared for a meeting.
Hopefully, this will flush out an agenda.
If not, and it seems appropriate, you can offer to help draft one.
Reach out to the other people who will be there to get an approximate sense of what needs to be covered and how much time everyone needs.
If the person running the meeting is truly overwhelmed at the moment, this can be helpful.
If you get to the meeting and there still is no agenda, if there is any sort of icebreaker or introductions at the beginning, use your time to check.
You can frame this as, I want to make sure I am most helpful here or I just want to clarify so I am sure I brought the right things and get the organizer to pin everything down.
If you are running meetings, always appoint a timekeeper.
This is someone whose job is to keep everyone to the agenda.
Now, obviously, if circumstances warrant it, more time could be spent on something, but having a timekeeper creates an obvious momentum to move on to the next thing.
The default is to stay on track rather than to not stay on track.
If you aren't running the meeting and there is any sort of agenda, offer to be the timekeeper.
You can just offer this at the beginning of the meeting.
Would it be helpful if I did the timekeeping here?
Or you can bring it up during any introductions?
I'm happy to help keep us on track here as I know some people have things right afterwards.
Again, it is always framed as being of service.
When people do meander during the meetings, you can just nudge things along nicely.
Jan, I can get you that material right afterwards.
Now, about the marketing stuff.
Most people probably aren't actively trying to run meandering, inefficient meetings.
They aren't trying to waste people's time.
They just aren't thinking about it.
This is where you can help.
But if things have been meandering and you're getting toward the end of a meeting, you can try to reorient things 15 to 20 minutes before the end by pointing out the time.
I know we have some people who are having to race out after this.
I wanted to make sure we figured out this and hopefully get everyone back on track.
Obviously it takes more work to run a meeting with a defined purpose, a solid agenda, and then a commitment to stick to the agenda.
When we do that, we can't have too many meetings.
But that's not a bad thing.
When you bring people together, it should be worthwhile.
Sticking to the agenda makes that much more likely.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura .lauravandercam .com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, Bo. Hey, Matt.
Can you believe we have yet another very special episode coming up?
This one is very close to my heart.
We'll be joined by Friend, the star of the upcoming Wicked film, the one and only Ariana Grande will be here in the studio with us.
We hope this episode of Last Cult gives you so much joy.
The episode is dropping this Wednesday, my birthday, November 6th.
And of course, please go see Wicked when it comes out.
Number 22nd, don't miss it.
Listen to Last Cult's release that's on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five -year -old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, was found off the coast of Florida.
And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba?
Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home, and he wanted to take his son with him.
Or stay with his relatives in Miami.
Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom.
Listen to Chef's Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.