There are several billion books, articles, and seminars about having effective meetings. To that pile, I’d like to add a very short few paragraphs.

I’ve noticed that when most meetings start, it’s by focusing immediately on the task. We seemingly can’t help ourselves. But when such a meeting occurs, there is no telling what is on the minds of the members. It may be that they have a sick child at home or an ailing parent or an impending divorce, all of which means they will be less than present at the meeting.

One manager I know starts her meetings by having everyone check in and say what’s going on in their lives. It takes some time but in the end it frees up the minds of meeting members and allows the group to more efficiently—and effectively—focus on the meeting topic.

Sometimes it’s better to focus on relationships before task to do a better job with the task. This is counterintuitive but I’ve seen it work again and again. JSperry