Three Questions That Will Shorten Your Next Meeting

Marcianne Kuethen

Updated March 24, 2022

“Well, that meeting sure was a waste of time,” grumbled a friend of mine one day.”The leader had no agenda, and we just talked and talked around issues and never got anywhere.”

I could relate to that sense of frustration and lack of closure. At our recruiting agency, the marketing team had struggled unsuccessfully through several wasteful meetings before we realized we just didn’t know where to begin. Having no real agenda and making no progress at these meetings was lowering our morale.

At Amtec, we often tell employers, “No one can be an expert at everything, so hire us, the recruiting experts, to manage your hiring needs.” So, we decided to take our own advice and hire an expert marketing consultant. Once we enlisted professional help, our meetings became very focused, a little overwhelming, and more exciting to attend. Under the direction of a seasoned marketing expert, the team now leaves these sessions with the sense that we are moving in a forward direction.

Every organization has undoubtedly struggled with how to make meetings more efficient, but according to Dr. Fred Kofman, a professor and author, it can’t be solved just by having an agenda. Kofman asserts that there’s more to planning a meeting than just pinpointing what you want to discuss, update, or review. If you’re going to justify tying up the time of several employees, the meeting must “lead people to act in a different way they would have acted had they not had the meeting”–otherwise the meeting’s value is zero.

So how can you keep your meetings from wasting your time and everyone else’s? Says Kofman, there are three questions you must ask before your next meeting–questions that will change its goal to the only one that matters. Click here to read Kofman’s valuable advice and cut down on your meeting times by up to 90%!

Need help making a difficult decision? It’s okay–no one knows everything!

By Marcianne Kuethen

Marcianne Kuethen

Marcianne Kuethen is a Senior Writer at Amtec, where she has written over 700 blog posts in the past 18 years. Her family has led the company across three generations, from her father who founded Amtec in 1959 to her son Barrett who serves as President and CEO today. Outside of writing, she makes art, music, and gardens.