ONE of the biggest reasons we complain about meetings is the people running them are prisoners to their agenda.
You cannot fault people for preparing for a meeting or sales call and having an itemised agenda of all the points they want to cover.
But it is dangerous to ignore the circumstances of the meeting - the people, the mood, the timing - in an effort to stick to that agenda.
Before you abandon your carefully prepared agenda, you have to recognise the circumstances working against it.
Whenever I walk into a meeting, I am always looking for clues that tell me whether my set plays will work - and whether I need to alter my plans.
I usually have a good idea of how many people should be in a meeting and when that number is too large to be productive. In a sales meeting, my ideal number is two (the customer and I), because I can sell best one on one.