{"id":15005,"date":"2016-07-15T13:22:08","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T20:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?p=15005"},"modified":"2016-07-15T13:26:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T20:26:51","slug":"david-allen-on-5-reasons-for-a-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2016\/07\/david-allen-on-5-reasons-for-a-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"David Allen on 5 Reasons for a Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ever find yourself wondering why you’re in a meeting or what the meeting is trying to accomplish? Here is a classic article from David Allen on 5 Reasons for a Meeting. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

There are five reasons to have a meeting. Each may be a perfectly fine reason. Make sure everyone at your meeting knows and agrees with which of these you are there to accomplish.<\/p>\n

1. GIVE INFORMATION
\n\u201cHello everyone. I\u2019ve brought you all together today to let you know what\u2019s been going on about the pending lawsuit. I\u2019d like you to leave here today understanding what\u2019s going on, and with as much background as you need to be able to answer questions that may arise from our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. GET INFORMATION
\n\u201cThanks for coming. We\u2019ve invited you all here to find out from everyone what we should be aware of that\u2019s going on in your division relative to the new product roll-out. We want to know what\u2019s happening at all levels in the organization about this, so we can make some adjustments in our plans accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. DEVELOP OPTIONS
\n\u201cWe\u2019d like to spend this afternoon surfacing, formulating, and exploring as many possible ways to deal with the problem we\u2019ve just uncovered in the new system implementation. We want to make sure we\u2019ve got everyone\u2019s perspectives and all the possible
\nalternatives formulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. MAKE DECISIONS
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve brought you all together this morning to present to you the three proposed approaches to launching our new product, and get a consensus decision on which one to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. WARM MAGICAL HUMAN CONTACT
\n\u201cThere are three agenda items we would like to cover today. And though we could have done this by email, we wanted to have an opportunity to bring the new team together in one place, and get some time to get to know each other between the lines…\u201d<\/p>\n

You may often have more than one of these agendas\u2014sometimes even all five. \u201cToday I\u2019m going to share some information with you, and get some information from you as well. We\u2019re then going to explore some possible approaches to the situation, and then decide our best course of action. Meanwhile it will give us a chance to get to know each other a little more as real people…\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretty common sense stuff. Right. But, ever sat in a room with someone trying to make a decision, someone else just wanting to do some brainstorming about some possibilities, some people just wanting to get to know who they\u2019re working with, and someone else just wanting to get some information about the situation?\u00a0And they all wind up wanting to kill each other?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very valuable to get clarification and agreement on the front end, as to which of the five reasons for a meeting you have going on.
\n\u2013David Allen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever find yourself wondering why you’re in a meeting or what the meeting is trying to accomplish? Here is a classic article from David Allen on 5 Reasons for a Meeting. Enjoy! There are five reasons to have a meeting. Each may be a perfectly fine reason. Make sure everyone at your meeting knows and … <\/p>\n