Boring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of Your Meetings, or Get Out of More Meetings

Attendee SRDs

• Reread the details of the meeting invitation when you get it, or at least 24 hours in advance. If you read it just before you walk in, it diminishes your opportunity to put in any quality thinking time.
• If your name is on the agenda, be prepared to speak. Don't fall into the trap of showing up and then realizing you needed to graph your milestones or share data you left at your desk.

Get Out!

Realistically, if the facilitator is unprepared, he or she won't even know whether you show up—and might even second-guess having invited you! What should you do? Go back to your office to retrieve items that should have been requested in the first place. While you're in your office, text the facilitator that you've been delayed by another call. Be sure to give your permission for the meeting to move on without you, or else your peers (who are helplessly trapped and mad about further delays) will deliver paybacks!