Multi-Tasha!

Dealing with people who are partly present at your meetings

In step three of our Better Meetings Campaign, we are focusing on getting rid of unnecessary participants. By streamlining the size of our meetings We can make them more effective and more likely to succeed.

In our Better Meetings Survey, we have found that most people think that 25% of participants or more were unnecessary to the content of  their meetings. (Follow the link to take the Better Meetings Survey yourself,  and find out how you compare with other organizations.)

We have produced a series of cartoons on unnecessary meeting participants. This one is about the attendee  – Multi-Tasha – who is constantly multitasking. Do you have one of these in your meetings?

"Multi-Tasha"

One way to spot them, particularly in conference calls, is when you ask them a question and they have to ask you to summarize the content of the discussion that they missed before they can answer the question.

There are two possibilities in dealing with Tasha.

The first is that she really doesn’t need to be there. Perhaps the latest text, e-mail or tweet is genuinely more important and relevant to her than your meeting. If this is the case, then she probably shouldn’t be attending.

Alternatively, she may be critical to the success of your meeting, but just isn’t paying attention. If you do need Tasha to attend your meeting fully then you need to change this distracting and annoying multitasking behaviour.

We use the phrase “multitasking” to feel good about not paying attention. It’s a myth. Nobody can do their best work by not paying attention to it. If the tasks being conducted in parallel are trivial, this may not matter. But if it’s important then we need your full attention.

If you want to learn how to deal with Tasha and other unnecessary participants, then join the free Better Meetings Campaign. You will receive a booklet each week for six weeks with some specific tools, tips and actions you can take to resolve six key challenges in having fewer, better on and off-line meetings.

If you would like fewer, better, meetings, join the campaign today.

Join: The better meetings campaign

Educate yourself further with a few more or our online insights:

30 years of experience learning with a range of world class clients

We work with a wide range of clients from global multinationals to recent start-ups. Our audiences span all levels, from CEOs to operational teams around the world.  Our tools and programs have been developed for diverse and demanding audiences.

View more of our clients
Two woman talking with a cup of coffee

Tailored training or off the shelf modules for your people development needs

We are deep content experts in remote, virtual and hybrid working, matrix management and agile & digital leadership. We are highly flexible in how we deliver our content and ideas. We can tailor content closely to your specific needs or deliver off the shelf bite sized modules based on our existing IP and 30 years of training experience.

For more about how we deliver our keynotes, workshops, live web seminars and online learning.

Discover our training solutions