I read an article years ago in Fast Company magazine about the Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings.  I always liked the way the author, Eric Matson, crafted the title.  He didn’t say ‘the seven deadly sins’, but rather ‘the seven sins of deadly meetings’. I could probably add another hundred sins to the deadly meetings I have survived. I thought if you haven’t seen this list, it would be good to share because it still holds true:

#1 People don’t take meetings seriously. They arrive late, leave early, and spend most of their time doodling.

#2 Meetings are too long.  They should accomplish twice as much in half the time.

#3 People wander off the topic. Participants spend more time digressing than discussing.

#4 Nothing happens once the meeting ends. People don’t convert decisions into action.

#5 People don’t tell the truth.  There’s plenty of conversation, but not much candor.

#6 Meetings are always missing important information, so they postpone critical decisions.

#7 Meetings never get better.  People make the same mistakes.

Bernard DeKoven’s quote at the end of the article really sums things up: “People don’t have good meetings because they don’t know what good meetings look like.  Good meetings aren’t just about work. They’re about fun — keeping people charged up.  It’s more than collaboration, it’s ‘coliberation’ — people freeing each other up to think more creatively.”

Somewhere between an unforgiving, structured agenda and a free-for-all, there is creativity. As a meeting leader it is our job to tap into that sweet spot of liberation and capture those gems of creative thinking. Increased productivity cannot happen in a stifled environment. PLAY is not a four-letter word and FUN is not the enemy. Take a little advice from Plato, who must have been a fun guy, and said:

      “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

So, enough with the talk, talk, talk, and deadly meetings. It’s time to get down to business and PLAY!

(If you’d like to read the entire article, The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings, here’s the link http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/02/meetings.html