Add follow up time to your next meeting

How many times have you had a great meeting, then struggled to find the time later to follow up on your action items from it?

I believe that business life is filled with out-of-sight out-of-mind behavior, where meetings end up being 'happy talk' with little real execution. In many cases, it is a time management issue, not an integrity issue.

Recently, I've started a new meetings habit, padding a meeting with 15 to 30 minutes of follow up time. This means that after a meeting or conference call, I have time blocked out to do what I promised to do, including research, networking, writing, etc. I've noticed immediate results from this new technique and on top of that I've delighted business mates with a lightning quick follow up (usually all of them same day of meeting/call).

Try this strategy with your next few meetings, phone or in-person, and let me know how it works for you!

Comments

[Warren Whitlock]

I have also found that the value of a contact decresases rapidly. All the studies I've seen say that people can't remember details after just a few minutes of a meeting.

Quick action not only gets it done, it creates a impression that you are good at follow through (so rare) and cements in the information and feeling the other person had when you met.

This is easier to say than do, but an important habit to learn. Well worth the effort

[Matthew Cornell]

I do the same thing and it's a treat. Factors to make this work:

o Before the meeting ends, get clarity on action (yours and theirs), and mark it in your meeting notes. I use "[A]" for commitments I've made to others, and [W/F] ("waiting for") for the opposite.

o Use a good method to efficiently process your notes during the blocked-out time. I use a GTD-based method [1].

o Then, of course, follow through on your follow up!

Thanks for the post.

[1] Dealing with Meeting Notes - GTD to the Rescue!
http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2005/09/dealing-with-meeting-notes-gtd-to.html

[jen_chan, writer MemberSpeed.com]

That's a great and practical idea. Actually, it almost sounds like a personal decision made by managers and so it's not really written or said out loud. Then again, we live in a world where everything is so fast-paced. Sometimes, we just neglect and then forget.