Have you ever sat in a meeting, completely disengaged, fake smiling and periodically nodding while questioning your life choices? Yeah, me too. Department, year team, pastoral, SLT – do the meetings never end? Here are three meeting guidelines to live by!

We can all admit that some meetings are are amazing. Everyone’s engaged, enthusiastic and leaves feeling well informed and motivated to get the ball rolling. But when was the last time you attended a meeting like this? Let’s face it, most meetings are simply unnecessary, there’s no surprise why this topic has an entire merch section on Etsy. Can we make life easier and turn some of these drawn out snooze fests into emails instead?

Here’s 3 meeting guidelines / questions to ask before creating your guestlist:

1. Do people get the point? 

People should leave meetings feeling like they know what they have to do and why they are doing it.  If they don’t, congratulations – you’ve wasted everyone’s time. 

Because school culture overemphasises doing more and being busy we find that we often resort to appearing busy instead. Hence why we are constantly bombarded with pointless meetings. When there are no clear outcomes the purpose of the meeting is pretty much non existent so make it an email ok?

2. Are people participating?

Has anyone else noticed that it’s often the same few people contributing in every meeting? They show up bright eyed and bushy tailed, with a laundry list of ideas while everyone else just fades into the background, counting down the time. Meetings are supposed to involve everyone. Every individual should have the opportunity to contribute not just be talked at. If the meeting is purely informational maybe just try and email.

3. Is it just for feedback and updates?

Getting feedback and updates is important, especially if you’re launching something new or managing a team. That being said, holding a meeting isn’t the best way to get feedback and updates. Emailing your team and getting them to respond individually can actually be more valuable. We’ve all fallen victim to groupthink. One person shares their opinion and everyone else just nods in agreement. When people are given an opportunity to respond independently, you’ll get more reliable and useful information.

We hope these questions serve you in the future and help you decide if having a meeting actually makes sense. We’ve gone too long suffering through them in silence! 

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