Page 181 - Becoming a Successful Manager

172 BUILDING ON YOUR FOUNDATION

fi ngertips. To decide which to use for a given occasion, compare
their relative merits. For instance, face-to-face interactions may
be necessary to share materials and elicit immediate feedback.
E-mail, conference calls, or Net meetings might be a better way
to go if you need people’s ideas but not their physical presence.

A questionnaire could be the most efficient and least threat-
ening way of securing widespread participation, since people can

respond from the relative safety of their offices or homes. Having
determined what is required and what is available, use the tech-

nique that is justified by the task at hand. For our purposes, we
will continue with planning the meeting.
Once you are sure you need a meeting and why that is the best
option, it is important to answer these questions: “What is my
purpose? Why is it important? What do I want to get out of it?”
People often say, “Let’s have fewer meetings!” What they
mean is, “Let’s have fewer unproductive, wasteful meetings!”
Amen! If you look at the reasons you thought meetings were a
waste of yours and your colleagues’ time, it was that the planners
did not think them through or manage them respectfully.
Management is all about getting things done through other
people. To be an effective manager, one of the most important
things to master is effective communication with your staff.
Therefore, meetings as a communication vehicle are essential to
the survival of your department. Treat them as such when plan-
ning and conducting them.
We want to put you on the path to conducting more produc-
tive meetings. It is as easy as PIE! You just need to make them
Planned and Prepared, Interactive, and Effi cient.
To know whether you were well prepared, measure achieve-
ments against objectives; to know whether it was interactive,

solicit feedback; to know whether it was efficient, review to see if
you achieved your goals in the time scheduled or less.