The Ideal Business Meeting

Early in my career, about 25 years ago, I was reading “How to Run Better Business Meetings” by the 3M Meeting Management Team on meeting planning and came across a quote that I found to be very empowering. When asked, the 3M Management Team expressed their views on meetings. This quote summarizes the importance that meetings hold and the significance of a productive meeting. Yes, there can be meetings when things are not accomplished, but when a great meeting comes along everyone has a new mindset. And great things can happen.

“The ideal business meeting is an organizational jewel. It proceeds without wasted motion from opening to adjournment. It is well-planned, has a defined purpose, and adheres strictly to a prepared agenda and proceeds crisply, dispatching each item on the agenda. When it is over, everyone can leave the room knowing something has been accomplished.

Good meetings bring forth the best in people – the best ideas, the best decisions, and the best follow-up reactions. Not all meetings are good meetings, but good meetings can happen, and when they do, the company and the individual participants reap the benefits.

There is a certain amount of magic when people come together for a meeting. The magic is in the interplay of ideas and personalities that takes place in the meeting room. When the interaction is completed, information has been exchanged, old concepts and ideas have been tested and blended, and new ones have emerged. One of the magical aspects of a meeting is that it can and should be so many things at once – a communication device, a cauldron of creativity in which new ideas are born, and an anvil on which solid plans are forged.” – 3M Management Team

This still rings true today!