There is an unsaid rule that most people generally tend to accept... If the deadline is set to 1400Hrs, u might as well assume that you have until 1800 Hrs! And one of the times this is most noticeable is when holding meetings. You send out invites to people and intimate the time of meeting to be 1000Hrs and inevitably the meeting does not start until 1030Hrs... Reason: People dont assemble by the given time. And this is most often joked about saying "We follow IST - Indian Stretchable Time".

I wondered and pondered during the early years ven I cud do nothing about it and ven I actually started to lead a team, I tried this experiment...

As usual I send out an invite for the status meeting to start at 1000Hrs. On the first day I waited until 1010Hrs to start the meeting. I had less than half the people attending but went ahead regardless.

Next time I started the meeting at 1005Hrs. Any issues raised by people who were not present in the status (especially those who had slipped deadlines) were not accepted... Reason: It was "not" discussed in the status!

2 or 3 rounds of such meetings ensured that people were not only attending the meeting on time but ver sometimes there before time!

I did earn the reputation of being quite infexible and difficult to work with... But hey... If u need a sword hanging over ur neck to get u disciplined, Ill gladly do the honors :)

But ppl cud have genuine reasons for not making it on time.

total misuse of power. but nice method to kick on their butts

U R LUCKY TO HAVE PEOPLE WHO COME ON TRACK WITHIN 2 TO 3 ROUNDS...VEEERRRYYYY LUCKY:-D

& ya hope dey REMAIN disciplined & u r successful in BEING disciplined.....:-D

Jackal,
True. But u run out of genuine reasons ven it becomes a norm rather than an exception.

Anara,
Thanks (I think)

Komal,
Hmmm... Lucky indeed ;)