Ever go into a meeting wondering what the point of it is then walk out feeling like you just lost a precious hour or more of your life that you'll never get back? You never understood the point from the get-go and after the meeting ends, you feel downright confused. It happens all too often. An article from August of this year published by Ragan's HR Communication pointed about 10 ways meetings are dumbing us down. Here are a few things that were pointed out in the article with my solutions for how you can lead more productive meetings.

1. Meetings make us dumb when we have no idea what the point of the meeting is going into it. As noted in the article, when employees are unsure what the point of a meeting is, it's troublesome. As a solution, when you schedule a meeting, clearly state what the point is. When the meeting begins, reiterate the point again. A simple way to let the employees you invite know what they can expect from each meeting up front is to schedule each meeting by emailing attendees calendar appointments. In the calendar appointment, include a few bullets to highlight the objectives of each meeting. On meeting day, write the objectives on a white board or hand out on a piece of paper to each attendee.

2. Meetings make us dumb when attendees are late or unprepared. When employees are late or unprepared at a meeting, it's a productivity killer. To solve this problem, prior to any meeting, clearly state what's expected of attendees in the meeting so that everyone in attendance can be prepared. This can go in the calendar appointment noted above. To be prepared as the presenter, have a clear understanding of what you plan to talk about and test out any technology you need to use as part of your presentation, prior. Practice what you're going to talk about the night before if you need to … on your spouse, on a pet, with a friend via Skype — do what it takes to prevent stumbling over your words on meeting day and dropping papers all over the place.

3. Meetings make us dumb when employees don't speak up because they're afraid to say what's on their mind. I've seen this happen a lot with lower level employees. They are afraid to say what's on their mind around their higher ups because they're scared what they have to say will be rejected. The solution is simple. Help your employees feel comfortable by encouraging them to speak up. Let them know that you welcome every employee's thoughts. When possible, make meetings less formal. Instead of holding meetings in a formal conference room, when the weather is nice, try holding a meeting outside.

4. Meetings make us dumb when people repeat themselves. Instead of killing a topic over and over, get to the point. If a resolution to a problem cannot be made, agree to disagree. Perhaps the issue needs to be researched further. In that case, let attendees know there will be a follow up meeting after they've had time to do their research and put more thought into the subject at hand.

5. Meetings make us dumb when some people — the same people — do all the talking, making it hard for others to get a word in. According to CNN Money, in a typical four-person group, two people do 62 percent of the talking; in a six-person group, three people do 70 percent of the talking; in an eight-person group, three people do 70 percent of the talking. The article that noted these statistics recommends to neutralize a meeting tyrant use these three techniques: brainwriting, nominal group technique (NGT), and cyberstorming. The author defines each as:

• Brainwriting � a written generation of ideas.
• NGT � rather than working in interactive groups, meeting attendees work on a task or challenge independently. Following, their responses or output are pooled.
• Cyberstorming � instead of verbalizing ideas, meeting attendees type their ideas into a database that displays their ideas on a large screen.

Read the full article � How to Neutralize a Meeting Tyrant

The reasons I covered above are the ones I feel are most common in meetings. Meetings should make us feel empowered and be productive. Are you ready to hold your most productive meeting yet?