by Stever Robbins

Meetings can suck up a tremendous amount of time, with very little valuable work getting done. Of course, it's possible to learn to run a tight meeting. But when you're at a meeting that someone else is running, you don't have the luxury of hurrying things along…or do you?

Here’s a Quick & Dirty Tip to speed things up:

Use Brief Recaps and Questions to Keep the Meeting on Track

At regular intervals, raise your hand and recap what's going on. For example: "I just want to make sure I understand where we are. We've shared all relevant sales numbers. We're now going to create specific action steps to reach those sales numbers, right?" Always drive towards action. Ask, "Just so I'm clear, this means Chris will get us the list of clients by Thursday?"

Since meetings are usually about information sharing or moving action along, this technique will refocus the group and make the time spent more efficient.