It is common for people to dread meetings.  However, the game of knowledge work is played out not only at your desk but in the many different conversations we have with our colleagues, clients, and collaborators.  In that light, a meeting is simply a conversation that is scheduled for a specific time and place.  While important to getting work done, meetings can also be a source of confusion and conflict if not done effectively.  So, are there best practices to having better meetings?

In a recent blog post, David Allen shares his insights about meetings and it starts from the top of the Natural Planning Model, that is defining purpose.

“An essential question to answer at the start of any meeting is, “What do we want to accomplish here, and by what time?” If purpose isn’t clear, no one has sufficient criteria by which to frame and monitor the ensuing conversation, nor the information to know whether he or she should participate in it. So, step one, make sure the purpose of each meeting is clear.”

Read the rest of the blog post at Getting Things Done.

Do you have a project that has sat on your plate for a while?  Perhaps a home repair that never seems to get completed or the office redesign that is caught in perpetual limbo.  Odds are the reason this project lacks momentum is because the time has not been taken to carefully consider the next physical action needed to move it forward.

Physical actions are visible to other people such as calling someone on the phone, typing an email, drafting a memo, or talking to a colleague.  A common trap is to believe that “thinking” about an item is a next action.  Thinking could be part of a next action if that process is accompanied by a physical movement to capture the ideas, such as drawing a mind map.

Last week I met Andy Aichele, the new Organizational Learning and Development Manager for the Columbus Metropolitan Library and a certified GTD trainer.  He shared an effective way to think about how to create effective next actions.  The approach is to imagine delegating the action to someone else. Would they be able to understand and complete the action based on how you described it?

To practice this approach, the next time you develop a next action consider how you would describe it to another person.  If you could delegate it effectively to others, then you should be able to compete it yourself.  Projects only move forward through physical actions so be careful to effectively and clearly draft your next step.