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让员工们学会严守会议议程

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When it comes time for a meeting, co-workers can be deadly. Discussions get hijacked. Bad ideas fall like blunt objects. Long-winded colleagues consume all available oxygen, killing good ideas by asphyxiation.


开会时，同事们可能会变得讨厌透顶。讨论会被人生硬地打断，坏点子一个接一个闷声不响地砸落下来。那些罗嗦的同事消耗着所有能呼吸到的氧气，闷死好想法。



Co-workers wander off topic, send texts, disrupt decision-making or behave in other dysfunctional ways. Even the best leaders can resort to desperate measures to keep the discussion on track: chocolate rewards, Elmo dolls and ice-cold rooms.


有些与会者会离题万里、发送短信、打断决策或用其他方式捣乱。即使是最好的领导者也可能要借助非常措施来保证讨论正常进行：譬如，巧克力奖励、Elmo娃娃和冰冷的房间。



Multitasking at meetings is such a given that unless a leader sets a 'no devices' rule or schedules 'tech breaks,' nearly everyone texts or sneaks a peek at email during meetings. And yet, that is nothing compared with real sabotage.


在会议上一心多用是如此理所当然，以至于除非领导规定"不准携带电子设备"或留出"高科技休息时间"，否则几乎每个人都会在会议上发短信或偷看电子邮件。不过与那些真正的捣乱行为相比，这还是小巫见大巫了呢。



Naysayers are the ones who 'whatever you bring up, it will never work,' says Dana Brownlee, founder of Professionalism Matters, a corporate-training company in Atlanta. One of her strategies is to take serial naysayers to lunch before meetings to let them vent and try to reach agreement. Once the meeting begins, she sets ground rules, requiring anyone who complains also to offer a solution.


亚特兰大（Atlanta）企业培训公司Professionalism Matters的创建者达娜•布朗利（Dana Brownlee）说，唱反调者是那些"不管你提出什么，都永远行不通"的人。她的一个策略是在会前带唱反调者去吃午饭，让他们发泄情绪并努力达成一致。一旦会议开始，她就会制定基本规则，要求所有抱怨的人也必须提出解决方法。



Another problem personality is the silent plotter, Ms. Brownlee says. 'They may be the quiet person sitting in back, but as soon as the meeting is over, they're over there by the Coke machine, planning your demise,' she says. She makes a point of calling on plotters during meetings to try to draw out their feedback.


布朗利说，另一类问题人物是暗中打算盘的人。她说，"他们可能是安静地坐在后排的那个人，但一旦会议结束，他们就会围到可乐机旁，谋划着给你捣鬼。"她特别注重让这些人在会上发言，努力获取他们的意见。



And for the toughest offenders, ramblers, Ms. Brownlee sometimes puts an Elmo doll in the center of the meeting table and tells participants, 'Anytime anybody in the session thinks we're getting off track, pick up the Elmo doll.' This allows co-workers to express frustration without interrupting, she says.


对于最难对付的捣乱者──爱闲扯的人，布朗利有时会在会议桌中间放一个Elmo娃娃，并告诉与会者，"只要会议中任何人认为我们离题了，就可以拿起这个Elmo娃娃。"她说，这让同事不用插话就可以表示他们的不满。



Brenna Smith still talks about her big meeting victory. She was making a slide presentation to her new boss and 10 colleagues several years ago when, mid-sentence, a co-worker stood up and walked toward the front of the room, arguing that her ideas wouldn't work.


布伦娜•史密斯（Brenna Smith）是女性网站SheNow.org的创建者和首席执行长，她对自己在几年前一次会议中的取得的一次大胜至今仍津津乐道。当时，她向她的新老板和10名同事进行幻灯片演示，话说到一半时，一位同事站起来，走向会议室前面，声称她的想法行不通。



To show that she could hold her ground, Ms. Smith says, she returned fire. 'I think you're making a really good point,' she told the interrupter, 'but I want to finish what I'm saying first so we can talk about my ideas, and then we can talk about yours if we have time.'


史密斯说，为了表明她能坚守己见，她进行了反击。她对打断者说，"我认为你说得很不错，但我想先说完我要说的话，这样我们就能讨论我的想法，然后如果我们有时间，再谈论你的想法。"



The room fell silent. The co-worker retreated to his seat. He never got time to make his case and her proposal was adopted, says Ms. Smith, founder and chief executive of SheNow.org, a website for women.


房间变得鸦雀无声。这位同事回到他的位子上。史密斯说，他没有时间再发表意见，她的建议被采纳了。



People who ramble can be equally disruptive. Samir Penkar, a Minneapolis project-management consultant, was running daily meetings among 20 employees at an insurance company last year when two participants kept taking the conversation off-track. So, he started bringing in chocolates. Whenever either 'started their rambling, I handed them a chocolate,' he says.


爱闲扯的人也一样会扰乱会议。萨米尔•彭卡（Samir Penkar）是明尼阿波利斯（Minneapolis）的一位项目管理顾问，去年当他在一家保险公司主持有20位员工参加的每日例会时，两个与会者一直在把话题扯远。因此，他拿出了巧克力。他说，只要他们"开始瞎侃，我就递给他们一块巧克力。"



He repeated the tactic six times over two weeks until the employees learned to stick to the agenda.


他在两周中重复了六次这种策略，直到员工们学会严守会议议程。



To keep a meeting moving, leaders sometimes set aside time early in the discussion for naysayers to voice objections and challenges, and then direct the group to shift gears and focus on making a decision, says Patti Johnson, chief executive of PeopleResults, a Dallas-based career and workplace consulting firm.


达拉斯（Dallas）职业与职场咨询公司PeopleResults的首席执行长帕蒂•约翰逊（Patti Johnson）说，为了确保会议顺利进行，领导者有时会在讨论中提早为反对者留出时间，让他们说出反对意见和质疑，然后引导团队改变方式，将重点放在决策上。



In a meeting she attended several years ago, co-workers were close to reaching consensus on a new project, Ms. Johnson says. Then, a seniormanager blew it all up.


约翰逊说，在她几年前参加的一次会议上，同事们几乎就要对一个新项目达成共识了。然后，一位高级经理毁了这一切。



'She asked a question that was almost impossible to answer,' Ms. Johnson says. 'It threw the speaker off balance.' Several of the manager's 15 frustrated co-workers asked, 'Why are you bringing this up at this point? Shouldn't you have raised this earlier?' she says. But the naysayer's objection was enough to stall the project-- an outcome that seemed to please her.


约翰逊说，"她提出了一个几乎没法回答的问题。这让发言者很尴尬。"15名同事都很沮丧，有几个人问，"为什么你要这时候提出这个问题？你为什么不早点说？"但反对者的反对意见足以令项目搁浅──这个结果似乎让她很高兴。



With advances in technology and an emphasis on efficiency, the office should be running more smoothly than ever. Meetings are supposed to be a time of creative problem-solving, where the best ideas emerge. Yet even some of the best managers can't seem to run them.


随着技术进步和对效率的重视，办公室的运行应该比以往更加顺畅。会议应该是充满创意的问题解决时间，此时应涌现出最优秀的想法。然而，即使是最好的管理者有时似乎也无法得心应手地驾驭会议。



Office workers spend four hours a week in meetings on average-- and they regard more than half of that time as wasted, according to a British study of 1,000 employees released last week by Opinion Matters, a London market-research company, for Epson, a maker of office printers and projectors, and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, an economic consulting firm.


伦敦市场调查公司Opinion Matters上周发布了一项为办公室打印机和投影仪生产商爱普生（Epson）和经济咨询公司经济和商业研究中心（Centre for Economics and Business Research）在英国进行的研究，研究对象为1,000名员工。根据该项研究，办公室员工平均每周要花四小时开会──他们认为一半以上的时间都是浪费。



'Too many meetings' was the No. 1 time-waster at the office, cited by 47% of 3,164 workers in a separate study by career site Salary.com this year on workplace time drains. That is up from 42% in 2008, when meetings tied for third place with 'waiting for a co-worker to finish something you need.' (No. 1 was 'fixing someone else's work' and No. 2 was 'dealing with office politics.')


职业网站Salary.com今年就工作时间耗费情况对3,164名员工进行了一项独立研究，其中47%的人认为，"会太多"是办公室最耗费时间的事。这高于2008年的42%，当时会议和"等待同事完成你需要的工作"并列第三。（第一是"补救别人的工作"，第二是"应付办公室政治"。）



Ad-agency executive Bill Shelton acknowledges that he and others in his profession 'have a way of drawing out meetings, grandstanding and trying to command attention. Part of your job is to sell your work, which you do in a meeting,' he says. To keep meetings from dragging on, his boss at a former employer positioned the conference table in his office right under the air-conditioning vents. 'About an hour before the meeting, he would crank down the thermostat to about 50 degrees,' then tell employees as they arrived to 'leave your sweater at the door,' says Mr. Shelton, now president of Left Field Creative, a St. Louis ad agency


比尔•谢尔顿（Bill Shelton）是圣路易斯（St. Louis）Left Field Creative广告公司的总裁，他承认，他和这行中的其他人"有拉长会议、哗众取宠、试图吸引注意力的方法。你的部分工作就是推销你的工作，即你在会议上做的事。"为了保证会议不拖延，他前公司的老板在自己办公室会议桌的下方安了一个空调通风口。谢尔顿说，"会议开始约一小时前，他就会把温度调低到50华氏度左右。"然后在员工到达时告诉他们"把外套放在门口"。



'We had the most efficient, productive meetings in history, because everyone got down to business. We simply wanted to get out of the 'walk-in freezer.' '


"我们开了历史上效率最高、最有成效的会议，因为每个人都在谈正经事。我们只是希望赶紧走出这个'冷柜房间'。"



Get More Done


提高会议效率的小窍门



Advice from executives, meeting planners and trainers on productive meetings:


高管、会议策划师和培训师关于如何让会议富有成效的建议：



•Set a clear agenda.


•制定清晰的议程。



•Impose a 'no devices' rule or schedule periodic tech breaks for email, texts and phone calls.


•规定"不准携带电子设备"，或定期留出发电子邮件、发短信和打电话的"高科技休息时间"。



•Redirect people back to the agenda when they ramble or digress.


•当人们闲聊或跑题时将他们拉回到正题上。



•Draw out quiet people by asking them in advance for a specific contribution.


•提前向沉默者提问，让他们提出具体意见。



•Do a 'round robin,' when appropriate, to allow everyone to contribute.


•在适当的时候"轮流发言"，让每个人都能发表意见。



•Ask early for objections to keep them from derailing discussions later.


•提早询问是否有反对意见，避免有人到后来扰乱讨论。



•Limit the length of slide presentations.


•限制幻灯片演示的长度。



•Interrupt people who talk too long or talk to each other.


•打断滔滔不绝或彼此聊天的人。



•Set an ending time for the meeting and stick to it.


•规定会议的结束时间并严守这一时间。



Sue Shellenbarger


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