As I fill my calendar with 2009 project meetings, it is good to be reminded about good meeting practices:

  • Whoever calls a meeting should be explicit about its objectives.
  • Everyone should think carefully about the opportunity costs of a meeting. Do you really need one?
  • After productive or unproductive meetings, assign credit or blame to the person in charge.

Please, don’t just call a meeting and hope the magic happens. Take charge and take personal responsibility for meeting its objectives, whatever they are.

From NYTimes’ Preoccupations column, 1/17/09