In Wall Street Journal, Franklin Lavin, U.S. Ambassabor to Singapore wrote Manager's Journal column about some of things he learned from late President Reagan while working on his staff.

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If you are thinking about moving on from this article because of your feelings about politics of President Reagan, please don't. The lesson I am about to share isn't about politics or partisan-ship, or any of those things.

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It is about caring.

About being focused on others.

It is a lesson for all leaders.

Lavin shares a story about an appearance President was making at an Alabama school for handicapped children. The event was going super well, until one of children with a severe speech impediment asked a question of President. No one in audience could understand and room became tense. The President asked him to repeat question, and energy in room was further dampened. Again, no one understood.

Anything that consumes a major chunk of our time is ripe for analysis and is likely a great source of productivity improvement. And meetings are no exception.

Even a casual conversation about business life will soon get to frustrations and challenges people experience in meetings. You will quickly hear things like:

“They are such a waste of time.”

“We never seem to finish anything.”

“We just spend too much time in meetings.”

“How can I get my work done when I spend all my time in meetings?”

“I’m not sure why I was at that meeting.”

I’ll bet you’ve said or thought one or more of these things yourself.

In my experience, there are several questions we can ask to help improve effectiveness of our meetings. But one of those should clearly come first. It is question we should ask at very start of planning any meeting. Answering this question carefully is fastest way to improve our meetings.

The First Question

Do we need a meeting?

Too often people don’t ask this question. They have information to share, a problem to solve, or a question to consider and so they do what they always do – they schedule a meeting. We do this for many reasons, including:

-Wanting everyone to be involved

-Not wanting someone to feel left out

-Wanting everyone to buy-in to results of meeting

And most common reason, habit.

We schedule meetings because that is what we have always done.

How to Answer Question

The first hurdle is to ask question. Once you have asked yourself question, you need to know what to consider when answering question. Think about:

•Geographic location of information/participants. If your whole group is located together this is less of an issue, but it is a definite consideration if your people are spread out or travel regularly.