fastcompany:

Here’s Why Meetings Never Accomplish Anything- And 3 Ways To Fix Them

Don’t let loudmouths hold too much sway.

Why: Echoing Quiet author Susan Cain’s point that the loudest people don’t have the best ideas and can, in fact, hamstring the ideas generation process.

“Vocal, overconfident team members have a disproportionate influence while shy contributors lose faith in their own proposals,”

Solution: Make sure everyone involved notes their ideas and prediction before the discussion—and influencing—begins.

Inject a little pessimism.

Why: “…downfall is often caused by project groups growing isolated and inward-looking, a symptom of the “unrealistic optimism that often bedevils creative teams.”“

Solution: “…air out reservations with a “pre-mortem,” a thought experiment where members forecast that their project fell apart in the future—and then backtrack to the present to find out why.”

Watch the clock.

If you’re having meetings, research suggests that you need them to be crisp. Jarrett notes a 2011 study that found that 367 American employees across industries didn’t care so much about how long a meeting lasted, but whether it started and ended on time.

And when in a week should you have a meeting? According to a 2009 analysis by scheduling service When Is Good, people’s flexibility peaks at 3 p.m. on Tuesdays.

[Image: Flickr user Patrick Hoesly]

3 Ways to fix meetings.