This weekend I suddenly flashed back to life before the internet. My son was working on a school project at the kitchen table with no books in sight. The library? No way, of course he found all of the information online. It was different back in my day. First you would look up the correct book in the card catalogue at school or in the library. And at home you’d dive into the encyclopedia. You know, Wikipedia, but in book form? You copied the relevant materials and then made the report. With pen and paper or a typewriter…and lots of Tipp-Ex. Had I had the digital materials that are available now, it would have saved me a lot of time!!
Efficient decision making
With digital tools we work smarter and faster. And not only on school assignments! Take, for instance, administrative decision making. The primary processing stages remain unchanged: you base your decision on the information and opinions you gather. Period. You can, however, accelerate the process. You work more efficiently when you hold digital meetings, particularly during the decision-making phase, as described here:
1. Information bundled in each agenda item
If you hold digital meetings, all of the meeting documents are online. Notations, action-point lists and decisions are digitally coupled to the agenda points, together with arguments, comments and attachments. That is convenient if, for instance, a council proposal has to go through various layers of the organization for signing off: all information is available in one place. Furthermore, the initiator of the agenda item can set deadlines for the delivery of the materials. Sending reminders is therefore unnecessary and from then on the materials are available on time.
2. Pushing it through more quickly
Since all of the information is available on time and in one place, you can decide in advance whether a case needs to be discussed or it can be rubber stamped. Decided that it is better to discuss a topic with your fellow board members beforehand? Then you can easily coordinate that with each other with the app function of the digital tool. That way it is clear, for instance, that a subject is not yet ready for discussion. Have you decided which items just need formal acceptance? Then you schedule them at the beginning of the meeting and push them through quickly. That saves a great deal of time and keeps the momentum going during the meeting.
3. Signing off wherever and whenever you want
And you can save time even outside of the meeting. If you meet digitally, all of the meeting materials are in the cloud: you can consult them and sign off on any item from any device, at any given moment. Do you prefer to review the materials at home in the evening? No problem!
Accelerated decision making: that is a major advantage of digital meetings. In this e-book you can read all about the other benefits of paperless meetings.
iBabs is a leader in paperless meetings and enables you to reduce these piles of documents to the thickness of your tablet. Thousands of organizations have been using this system for more than 15 years.
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