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如何召開有效會議(一)
How to Run an Effective Meeting如何召開有效會議
Meetings are the bane of the corporate world but even small businesses can't avoid them completely. Here's how to run your meetings without wasting time or money.
會議是企業界煩人的事情,甚至是小型企業都不能完全地避免他們。在這里告訴你如何在不浪費時間和金錢的情況下來召開你的會議。
It's the fuel for movies like Office Space and Scott Adams' Dilbert comics: the inefficiency and bureaucracy of the corporate world. Boring, pointless meetings are just one of the symptoms of an entire ecosystem of poor organization and communication. 像上班一條蟲斯科特·亞當斯的呆伯特漫畫改編成的電影是以會議為原型的:體現出的是企業界的低效率和形式主義。會議枯燥,目的不明確只是整個公司運作環節組織不力,交流匱乏的表現之一。
So why are meetings often so ineffective? You'd think that nobody involved would want to waste his or her valuable time. Many managers and business owners simply have unrealistic expectations for how meetings will operate. They think, "We'll just have a free flowing, open, brainstorming type of meeting and lots of good ideas will come out,'" says Glenn Parker, a team building consultant and the author of Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings That Get Results.
為什么會議會經常的如此的沒有成效?你應該想想誰都不想浪費他的或者她的寶貴時間。許多管理者和企業家對會議僅僅有著不切實際的期望。格倫·帕克(一個團隊建設的顧問和使會議取得成效的33種方法的作者)說,“他們認為我們就隨意開放討論會議很多好點子就會產生,便可以集思廣益! Parker says there's a time and a place for that kind of meeting, for example if you're gathering some creatives to pool ideas for an ad campaign, but a lack of structure is likely to yield a lack of results. The style of meetings you run can range from this freeform discussion mode to a one-way information dump, in which the leadership updates their staff on strategic developments.
帕克說這種會議有特定的時間和地點,例如如果正在召集一些精英們共同為一個商業廣告出謀畫策,但是卻缺乏一個很有可能會沒有效果的結構。你開會的風格可能是這種自由模式,也有可能是領導單方面的信息傾倒即通過一些戰略性的發展來更新他們職員的信息。
For some companies meetings are a tumor of unproductiveness waiting to be excised, while for others they're the lifeblood of the company's communication in chaotic times. In either case, there are plenty of ways you can make sure your meetings are productive. 對于有些公司來說,會議是一個有害的腫瘤有待去除,而對于其他公司而言,他們則是公司混亂時期交流所必須的命脈。在這兩種情況下,你又有許多方法可以確保你的會議行之有效。
How to Run an Effective Meeting: Types of Meetings and How to Run Them如何有效召開會議:會議類型和如何運行
Just as meetings can serve a wide variety of functions within your company, you want to tailor your leadership approach depending on the sort of meeting you are running:
正因為會議能在你的公司內部起著各種各樣的作用,你需要根據你所要進行的會議類型來制定你的領導方式:
Action-oriented meetings - These meetings are intended to solve a pressing, or time-sensitive problem. In this case, key strategies include making sure people prepare well for the meeting so that you don't waste everyone's time trying to come up with solutions but rather debating the merits of potential solutions that people propose. You want to use language and choose a space that welcomes people to share their ideas while also letting people know that they should come prepared to defend their ideas fiercely.
以行動為導向的會議——這些會議旨在解決緊迫而有時效性質的問題。在這種情況下,主要的技巧要確保每個參加會議人員做好準備從而不把每個人的時間浪費在提出解決方案,而是花在討論人們提出的可行的解決方案中的優點上。你應當通過主持和選擇開會地點來鼓勵與會人員表達自己的觀點看法,同時也讓他們明確應當是有備而來,為他們的觀點強烈辯護。
Brainstorming or creative meetings - For a meeting like this you want to make sure there's food and drink to fuel long sessions churning out ideas. While these meetings can last longer than regular meetings and be a bit more free flowing, you still want to have a cap in mind for how much time you're willing to spend. Bringing in unexpected but relevant items can also spur creativity. For example, if you're discussing the design of a new office space, bringing in some Legos might give people a good outlet for their imaginations.
集思廣益或者富有創造力的會議——對于這樣的會議,你需要確保有足夠的食物和飲料為長時間的會議里思如泉涌提供燃料。由于這樣的會議會比平時的會議持續時間更長,也會更自由,你還需要清楚你要花費多長時間來開這個會。引進一些你所想不到的但又有著相關聯的想法來激發創造性。比如說,你們正在討論一間新辦公室空間的規劃,如果加入一些積木也許會為人們的想象打開一個缺口。
Short-term planning meetings - For short-term planning meetings, the list of people you invite is even more important than it is at a regular meeting. These meetings are likely to require a lot of team interaction, for example if you're working on a current project that involves, the sales, business development, and advertising departments. Make sure that people are on the same page before the meeting itself to save time and set out expectations for how and how often they will communicate both with the level of management above them and with their fellow teams.
短時間計劃會議——就短期會議而言,你所邀請的與會人員比平常的會議參與者要重要的多。這些會議可能需要團隊的溝通合作。例如,你們正進行著一個當前的項目計劃,其中就包括銷售,發展前景,廣告部門等。為了節約時間,達到預期效果,在會前就要確保與會人員有著相同的想法,他們應當如何與同事或其他高層管理員間交流。
Long-term planning meetings or retreats - Long-term planning meetings are likely to include most if not all high-level executives, though many small companies like to include their entire staffs in this process. However, lots of people means lots of opportunity for digression and irrelevance. If you have a lot of sharing going on make sure to choose a format that either maximizes the opportunities for the upper echelons to share their vision with the employees or for the employees themselves to discuss improvements or changes that they feel could help the company meet its goals.
長期規劃或變更的會議—— 一般長期規劃會議大多數可能不會是高管,而一些小公司則有可能要所有員工參與。而人越多意味著偏離主題或許更多無關緊要的狀況出現的幾率也越高。如果你打算進行想法的共享,就要選定一種模式要么盡可能地讓上層高管與雇員們發表他們的見解,要么就讓員工們自己就如何幫助公司達到目標討論完善和改變的方法。
Dig Deeper: Let's Start With an Icebreaker延伸:像一個破冰者一樣開始
How to Run an Effective Meeting: 3 Tips for Meeting Success如何有效召開會議:三個小妙招確保會議成功
While Parker outlines 33 tools for honing your meeting leading abilities in his book, he boiled the essentials down to three key ways to keep your meetings from being time wasters: 盡管帕克在他的書中列出33條訓練你的會議組織技巧,他把這些主要的歸結為三點以免浪費時間:
The first tidbit sounds obvious, but enough people disregard it to make it necessary. "Make sure there's a purpose for the meeting," Parker says. "Don't just have a meeting because it's Tuesday or don't just have a meeting because you haven't had one in a month and you feel like you should." Phone calls, e-mails, and calling folks into your office can be valuable replacements for larger group meetings. 第一點看似很明顯,但是很多人都會忽視,由此更有必要提一下。帕克說要確保開會有一個明確的目的,不要因為是星期二就開會或者是因為一個月沒有開會了而覺得應該要進行一次會議。這時打電話,發郵件,叫員工來你辦公室可以作為召開大型會議重要的替代方式。
Secondly, having a purpose for the meeting isn't enough unless people know what that purpose is so they can come prepared. There should also be a list of agenda items that get distributed to everyone involved, and ideally a specific amount of time alotted to cover each one to partially preempt digressions. 第二,僅僅有明確的開會的目的所在是不夠的,除非開會的人知道會議的目的所在,然后在會前準備好。開會時應該有會議的議程發給與會者,最好是每一部分有特定的時間分配,甚至提前分配好偏離主題的時間。
Finally, for a meeting to be successful rather than wasteful, you need to make sure the right people are there, no more no less. Do you need multiple representatives from the sales department or can one of them report back to their team. If someone consistently stays silent during meetings you either have a shy employee or someone with nothing to contribute in the context of that particular meeting. 最后,要想會議成功而不是在浪費時間,你需要所有合適的人員都到場,不多也不少。你需要各種各樣的銷售部參與者嗎?或者任何他們中一個向你匯報他們隊的工作。假如某個人總是在會議當中保持沉默。要么他就是個害羞的人或者在那種特殊的會議當中他不能做任何貢獻。
Dig Deeper: What's the Best Time for a Meeting延伸:什么時候是開會最佳時間?
How to Run an Effective Meeting: Keeping In Touch
如何有效召開會議:保持交流。
Mike Mastous' business operates at a breakneck pace, so if he found that meetings were time wasters, he'd have to trim the fat, and fast. At Delta Disaster Services, his Arvada, Colorado-based property restoration company, they get a call whenever a fire, flood, or similar disaster wrecks a commercial or residential building. 麥克. 馬斯塔斯的企業是以高速驚險的速度運行操作的。所以即使他認為開會只是在浪費時間,他也不得不挑選最重要的東西迅速講完。他的阿瓦達,科羅拉多州的財產恢復公司的三角洲災難服務部,無論何時一場火災或者洪災或者類似摧毀商業樓或者住宅樓的災難發生時,他們都會接到一通電話。
"When our phone rings, we're in business, and my phone could ring 20 times today and we've got 20 jobs that are real-time starts," he says. Though much time is spent gutting, draining, and rebuilding houses and stores, dealing with insurance companies, contractors and code violations eats up even more time and require real organizing chops.
“當我們電話響起的時候,我們正在忙生意上的事情,今天我的電話響了20次,我們得到了20份需要即時開始的業務!彼f道。雖然大部分的時間都花在拆毀房屋、清理排水溝、重建房屋與商店,和保險公司、承包商、違約方打交道耗掉了更多的時間,但是真正需要有計劃的削減不必要的時間。
Mastous makes sure his teams are coordinated with the help of technology, and a broader definition of what a meeting is. "Meetings aren't just skin to skin," he says, "they're getting people involved in conference calls, they're getting people involved in e-mail updates. Our IT IQ is pretty high." As an added layer of technology, everyone carries handhelds in the field to stay in touch and their locations are tracked via GPS to aid in fast response to new disasters. 馬斯塔斯確保他的隊員們能在技術的輔助下協調一致并對會議的含義所在有更廣泛的理解。他說,“會議不僅僅是表面的膚淺的,他們是召集人們使參與到電話會議中來。他們是召集人們使參與到最新的電子郵件中來。我們的IT智商是相當高的。”作為一個附加層的技術,每個人都通過設在該領域的手持設備保持聯系和它們的位置是通過全球定位系統跟蹤的,以幫助快速響應新的災難。
But Mastous also convenes plenty of in-person meetings, between seven and 10 a week, which is a lot for a company with only 25 employees and 30 subcontractors. Some of the most important communication happens before the meeting even begins. "Everyone's notified in advance what [issues will be covered] and they're to come to meetings with solutions," Mastous says. 但是馬斯塔斯也親自召開許多會議,一周有7-10次,這相對于一個僅有25個雇員和30個承包商的公司而言是相當多的。而一些最重要的交流早在會議開始前就已經開始了!疤崆巴ㄖ嗣總人所要討論的議題,他們都是帶著解決方案來的!瘪R斯塔斯說。
Dig Deeper: Joel Spolsky's A Little Less Conversation延伸:喬奧司坡奧斯基德少些交談
How to Run an Effective Meeting: Time Management如何有效召開會議:規劃好時間
No matter how detailed of an agenda you e-mail to your entire team, people will go over the time limits. You need to decide on a case-by-case basis whether that's acceptable or whether the discussion should be tabled for another time, but it helps to have systems in place. 不管你在你的郵件中如何向你的團隊詳化你的日程,人們會忽略時間的限制。你要個案地決定哪個可以接受,是否還需要進一步另找一個時間商討,因為這有助于建立一套合理的制度。
When a meeting participant starts to pontificate a bit, it's up to you "as the meeting leader to say something like, ‘it looks like we've drifted a bit, can we come back and focus on whatever that agenda item is,'" Parker advises. Another strategy is acknowledging the person's experience with the subject but suggesting the issue be raised at a later time. If it's germane but time is still running out, you should assign a smaller group to either gather more information or move the process along once the meeting is over. 當一個與會者開始目空一切的談論時,你作為會議主持者應該說點什么像”我們似乎已經有點偏離主題了,我們還是回到我們今天的主要議題上來吧,這取決于你,”帕克建議說。另外一個技巧是肯定這個人在這個主題方面的經驗,但是暗示這個議題應該稍后再提。如果它與主題密切相關但是時間不夠,你應該給一個小組分配任務以便能搜集更多信息及在會議結束后也能保證推動會議進程。
At Delta, Mastous tries to strike a tone that's simultaneously business-like and light-hearted. There are two clocks in the company's meeting room and "we have a gentleman in our office named Steve Foster, and Steve is extremely anal about being at a meeting on time, getting to the point, covering topics and getting out of the meeting on time because everybody has secondary appointments. We call those clocks Fosters." 在三角服務中心,馬斯塔斯試著給人們留下深刻印象,一方面讓人覺得輕松愉快同時又像是在做生意。會議室中有兩面鐘,我們團隊中有一位叫斯蒂芬.福斯特的男士。他很講究認為要準時參加會議、及時進入正題、按時完成會議。因為每個人接下來還有自己的安排。我們把他稱為福斯特鬧鐘。
Despite Foster's passion for punctuality, Mastous is still the one in charge of nipping tangents in the bud. "I want it to be healthy and I want it to be upbeat, and I don't want people to feel like it's martial law," he says. 雖然福斯特對準時很有見地,但是馬斯塔斯才是會議的掌控者,他總能防止離題太遠。“我希望整個會議過程中氛圍良好,積極向上,我不想讓人們覺得像是在進行軍事管制!彼f。
Another time management question is how often a team should meet and how long they should meet for. This obviously varies but, according to Parker, if you want to maintain a level of concentration and involvement "an hour is probably best, an hour and a half at the maximum without a break." As far as whether a group should gather daily quarterly or somewhere in between, there's a correlation between the scope of the project and the frequency of check-ins. Bigger picture planning meetings don't need to happen as frequently while small group projects might require near constant communication and meetings. 另外時間管理問題是一個團隊應多久開一次會議以及一次會議開多久。顯然這要因情況而異,對帕克來說,如果你想要達到注意力高度集中,積極參與的水平,也許一個小時最好,最多一個半小時無間斷的進行。至于每組是否要每天或是每季度或介于兩者之間時聚集,這就得看這個項目涉及的范圍廣度和需要檢查的間隔。較大型的藍圖規劃會議不需要經常召開,而小組項目會議則需要不斷地會議來溝通交流。
Dig Deeper: How to Organize Your Time and Space
延深:如何組織你的時間和空間How to Run an Effective Meeting: Meetings and Company Culture
如何有效召開會議:會議和公司文化The way a meeting will play out is often reflected in the setting where you choose to hold it. If you choose a round table or circular set-up, it sends the message that everyone is expected and encouraged to participate as opposed to an auditorium or classroom style set-up, in which case employees know to hunker down for a lecture. 選擇會議在哪里進行將反映在會議結束的方式上。如果你選擇圓桌或是圓狀的會議桌,這就是向會員們傳遞一個訊息那便是希望也鼓勵他們積極參與,他們可以像進行演講一樣來表達自己的觀點而不是像在進行視聽課或是課堂講演。
Mastous espouses the former type of set-up and he solicits the opinions of every meeting participant as part of the company's consensus-based approach to decision making. While this might sound overly time consuming, it makes sense if you did a good job before the meeting began of weeding out unnecessary attendees. 馬斯塔斯很贊成前一種會議的模式并且他把會議上每個人的意見征集起來達成共識從而成為決定的一部分。雖然這很耗費時間,但這是很有必要的,如果你工作到位的話,可以在會前淘汰不必要的人選。
This is also part of the reason why he feels meetings are a great way to introduce new hires to company culture. "I call it the sharing of the DNA," he says. "It's critical for [new recruits] to understand the culture and philosophy of the company and in many cases they're only going to pick that up through meetings."這也是他把會議當做一種很好的引進新雇員到公司文化建設中來的原因之一。他說“我把它稱為DNA共享“。對于新雇員來說了解公司的文化與原則是至關重要的,通過會議他們可以有很快的了解。
Dig Deeper: How to Build a Corporate Culture of Trust
延伸:如何樹立公司信任文化
How to Run an Effective Meeting: The Meeting Strategies of Great CEOs如何召開有效會議:首席執行官們會議的戰略There are as many styles of running meetings as there are companies and CEOs but these three entrepreneurs have particularly interesting approaches to communicating with their staffs:
進行會議有很多種方式,因為有不同的公司,不同的首席執行官,但是以下的三種企業家們有自己特別有趣的方式與他們的員工交流。
Caterina Fake,the co-founder of photo sharing site Flckr and currently runs Hunch a Web start-up and "decision engine." She has pretty strong feelings about meetings and they're not positive. "Interaction should be constant, not crammed into meetings once a week. At Hunch, we don't have meetings unless absolutely necessary. When I used to have meetings, though, this is how I would do it: There would be an agenda distributed before the meeting. Everybody would stand. At the beginning of the meeting, everyone would drink 16 ounces of water. We would discuss everything on the agenda, make all the decisions that needed to be made, and the meeting would be over when the first person had to go to the bathroom."
凱特瑞納.費克,照片共享網站Flckr的創建者目前在創建Hunch網站和decision engine。她對于會議有很強烈的反感,認為它們積極作用不大。她認為互動應該是一直都有的,而不應該把它僅填塞在每周一次的會議中。在Hunch網站公司里,除非是絕對需要不然不會召開會議。雖然過去我常常開會,但我開會的方式是:會前發放日程表。每個人都可以參加。在開會之前,每個人先喝16盎司的水。我們會討論日程表上的所有事情,做出所需做出的一切決定,當有第一個人必須去洗手間時,會議就結束了。
Similarly, Mark Cuban, an entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks sees meetings as a waste of time. He runs his whole business via e-mail and estimates that it saves him "five to 10 hours per day. No meetings. No phone calls. Everything is documented so the number of "let's talk again," or "get together to clarify," or "get on the same page" are gone. People learn very quickly to document and get to the point without the "intonation" of trying to sell me that occurs in meetings. I'm a Dragnet type of e-mail guy. Nothing but the facts. Leave the BS for other people."
同樣地,馬克.庫本,Dallas Mavericks的企業家,認為會議是浪費時間。他通過郵件來打理他的生意,據他估計他一天能節省5-10小時。不開會,也不打電話。一切都是通過文件傳輸,所以所謂的讓我們再談談吧,一起聚首再商討下或者統一下意見就免談了。人們很快就能學會文件傳輸,立馬就可以進入正題而不用考慮在開會時要注意用怎樣的語調來表述自己的想法。我是典型的電子郵件蟲。出了事情通知別無其他。離開BS是對其他人而言的。
At the end of his company's all-staff meetings, which are held every Monday, Justin Kan, the co-founder of Justin.tv makes sure people haven't been spacing out, and sometimes even he comes up short. "At the end [of the meeting], Mike, my co-founder and our CEO, gives everyone a quiz based on his notes from the meeting. It's just a fun thing, to test yourself and see if you're paying attention. Sometimes, I'll get five out of five answers right; other times, I might get two out of five."
在他公司每周一進行的全體職工大會結束時,簡斯町.崁,Justin.tv的建立者確保沒有人精神恍惚,有時他會突然中斷。會議快要結束時,麥克,我的合作者也是我們的CEO,從他所作的會議記錄中給每個人出了道智力測驗題。這只是一個小小的題目來檢驗你是不是注意力集中了。有時,我會得到百分百正確的答案,而其他時候,我可能從五個人中得到兩個正確答案。
By Josh Spiro | Aug 4, 2010
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