Computing the Cost of Ineffective Meetings
Francis S. (Frank) Patrick
>Has anyone seen a method of quantifying the
>cost of ineffective meetings?
Be careful.
Don't fall into the trap of focusing on cost and (in)efficiency. It might
spill over into the subject being facilitated.
It's easy to minimize the "cost" of any activity.
Just stop doing it.
;-)
Of course, if you haven't laid anybody off, you haven't saved any costs
anyhow.
>Do we have a way of measuring the value that
>facilitation brings to such circumstances?
>
>I suppose the question really has two parts:
>how do we measure inefficiency, and how do
>we measure effectiveness?
Efficiency (output/time unit of input) is only important to the extent
that the sooner a team comes to an effective decision/action, the sooner
the system/organization can take advantage of the results.
Effective (value of output/cost of input) meetings are best defined
primarily in terms of the value of the resulting decisions and actions.
Measurement of effectiveness is only meaningful in relation to how an
activity contributes to the ability of a system/organization to
accomplish (more of) its goal(s). The only way to accomplish more goal
stuff is to deal with the constraint impeding that accomplishment.
Valuable decisions and actions come from focusing on throughput of the
system, identifying the system's constraint, and how to enable the
system's constraint to deliver more throughput -- not from focusing on
costs.
Facilitation will only bring value to the system to the extent that it
helps the meeting participants stay focused on the constraint(s) of the
system, whether those constraints be physical bottlenecks or
self-inflicted policies. Therefore "facilitation" in general has no value
in and of itself. Facilitation supporting a throughput/constraint focus
will provide real value to the larger system.
What is the purpose of your facilitation? How does it contribute to the
ability of the larger system within which it operates to acheive its
goal(s)? What does your facilitation accomplish? What is it designed to
accomplish?
_________________________________________________________________________
Francis S. "Frank" Patrick fpat...@eclipse.net
Focused Performance - Management Consulting & Training
601 Route 206, Suite 26-451, Belle Mead, NJ 08502
Phone: 908-874-8664 Fax: 908-874-7664 Email: focu...@eclipse.net
"Science is simply the method we use to try and postulate a minimum set
of assumptions that can explain, through a straightforward logical
derivation, the existence of many phenomena of nature." - Eli Goldratt
"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify. Simplify." - H.D.Thoreau
_________________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe send SIGNOFF GRP-FACL to LIST...@ALBANY.EDU