It is hard to imagine the work of a company without business meetings. This type of interaction allows providing employees with the information necessary for work, quickly solve current project tasks, motivate personnel to achieve results, and form a developing environment in the team (Golsby-Smith, 2011). However, how true is this statement in case the majority of employees during meetings are focused on extraneous things, which means that time is wasted? Tony Golsby-Smith’s article Hold Conversations, Not Meetings changes the readers’ minds on how an effective business conversation should be held.
Tony Golsby-Smith answers the question of how to replace ineffective meetings with productive conversations. Low involvement of staff in work during meetings is not a reason to refuse them, but a reason to reconsider the approach to organizing and conducting them. The author recommends holding simple productive conversations in which all participants are involved and manage to resolve all the stated issues (Golsby-Smith, 2011). He recommends inviting new creative people, critically discussing questions, walking around instead of sitting, and writing ideas on the board, for example, in the form of mind mapping.
To hold a conversation instead of meeting, the author advises to discuss small issues beforehand, and focus on the main topic during the conversation. This will shorten the duration of the meeting and increase its effectiveness. Employees, seeing that the time has not been wasted, will be more willing to take part in the next meeting. It is important to supplement reports with colorful presentations, because the human brain memorizes visual information much better than sound (Golsby-Smith, 2011). Attention should be paid to other people’s arguments to increase employee responsibility and motivation. It is easier to find a suitable solution in the process of joint discussion.
The article is written in the style of a blog post, from the first person. This allows the readers to learn more about the author, see him as a professional, and trust his advice. Naturally, writing from the first person is logical when the author wants to communicate with blog visitors and share interesting information with them. The way of presenting information plays an important role because thanks to it Tony Golsby-Smith can win the reader’s trust (Golsby-Smith, 2011). Getting advice from hand to hand is much more pleasant than just reading an encyclopedic excerpt. For any person, the opinion of a real person who has tried what he writes about on himself is also more important than book truths.
Communication in the article is informal, practically excludes academicism, but a little humor and slang are welcomed in every possible way. Their use leads to the feeling of proximity to the target audience as if the blog readers have got into their native environment, the gathering of like-minded people. The author also asks questions at the end of the article: “Have you held a conversation in your company? How did it differ from a meeting?” (Golsby-Smith, 2011). It is done deliberately so that everyone can answer them and draw certain conclusions.
Tony Golsby-Smith’s article is relevant for BA students since it helps to refresh boring meetings and make them more effective, interesting, and productive for every member. The position of the author of the article is also essential, especially for the one who shares this opinion. If the author speaks competently about an object or phenomenon, he inspires the readers and builds trust and respect. The article is short, precise, but quite informative and useful. A fresh look from the outside is always needed to find a new approach and new options for the development of business conversations.
Reference
Goldsby-Smith, T. (2011). Hold conversations, not meetings. Retrieved from HBR Blog Network: Web.