Wasted an hour of my life!

Have you ever been sat in one of those meetings? You sit there listening to the endless drone of pointless conversation. If you want to pass on a report then pass on the report. For a meeting to be worth while then I believe that it should follow some set guidelines.

1. Set out a clear objective or set of objectives for what you aim to achieve from the meeting.
2. Define an agenda to structure the meeting.
3. Any documents should be issued before the meeting with specific areas to be review mentioned if required.
4. A chairman of the meeting identified to make keep the meeting on track.
5. A range of people identified to fill roles if required.

If none of the above are thought about then the likely outcome is a meeting where you sit either bored or rambling about the weather and what you did on holiday. Certainly not getting any constructive work done.