Little children insist on handling handle their issues now. They can't understand the concept of waiting. One job of a good parent is to teach the children to postpone their needs to a convenient time.

Administrators who schedule meetings often have a similar problem. After all, scheduling is an art. However, administrators are not babies. They should be able to postpone their gratification.

Many administrators feel the need to schedule a meeting as soon as an issue arises. Sometimes those issues represent an emergency, in which case their decision may be justified. In other cases, the meeting can certainly wait.

No, this is not a plea for procrastination. Issues should indeed be handled at the first possible and reasonable time.

However, they should also take into consideration the most effective way to tap into the brains of the participants.

Take the instance of a school administrator. Very often, important meetings are scheduled for the last days before school starts. The meeting may be effective, but the participants will be tired when they begin their teaching. That's not very effective scheduling.

Other administrators schedule meetings for the beginning of the school year, or right after a major holiday. That's also ineffective. Those periods of time are predictably busy for teachers. Their minds are on many other issues.

Many administrators or principals leave meetings with the frustrating feeling that they should have been able to accomplish more. They don't understand that a simple change in the scheduling could have made a big difference.

Somebody should tell principals to schedule meetings when the teachers have a free mind.

Somebody should tell business administrators to schedule meetings well before or well after the release of a new product. They should also distance their meetings from significant policy changes in the corporation. After all, they want their employees to give their full attention to the issue at hand.

Yes, the administrator frequently does not realize these things. From his ivory tower, he may not understand the issues that the other employees face. However, it's his job to find out when they can be most effective at their meetings.