A meeting is often described as “an event at which minutes are kept and hours are lost”, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Run your meetings ineffectively and you are wasting a year for every one of your direct reports. Depending on the size of your team, that could be 15, 20, 25 years or more down the plughole.
In this blog, we offer some practical tips to make your meetings productive and help you become famous for running great meetings.
1. Be clear about your purpose
Do you really need to hold a meeting? Would a phone call do, a chat in the corridor, or a short virtual coffee via MS Teams?
If you do decide a meeting is the way forward – and by doing so fulfil a basic human need to meet – be clear about the purpose. Are you trying to solve a problem, make a decision or build a team?
With a clear purpose in mind, you can now create your agenda. But before you do, be sure to start with a vital line at the very top: “The purpose of this meeting is X…” That will focus your mind as you design the agenda – and the minds of those you invite.
Then get your agenda out four to five days ahead of the meeting. That way everyone can plan their contributions.
Important topics should appear towards the beginning of any agenda to take advantage of the natural energy early on in a meeting – and to make sure it gets sufficient airtime.
Be wary of ‘rolling’ and ‘standing’ meetings – they’re often the prime suspects in ‘the case of the murderous waste of time.’
2. Think carefully about who should attend
Invite people who can genuinely contribute to or benefit from the meeting.
And think about the styles and needs of participants. That will impact the way you do things. People who like detail might appreciate pre-read materials. Quiet people could need time to reflect before giving a view. Loud, domineering types will probably need to be managed with care, so that other people can get a word in edge-wise.
3. Create a conducive environment
If you are meeting face-to-face, the purpose of your meeting should influence the space you use and how you lay it out. Dark windowless rooms lead to dark windowless thoughts.
Make the table layout work. A boardroom table drives formal boardroom style behaviour – and people nearer the chairperson are perceived to be more important. Is that want you want?
You might even think about a seating plan. We all pay attention to who sits where at an informal dinner party – and yet for a mission-critical business meeting we happily allow ‘free’ seating. Opposites do not attract in meetings – people with opposing views should never be sat opposite one another as it encourages them to be antagonistic. Instead, try sitting them next to each other.
And work out where you should sit. As the leader of the meeting, can you ‘drive’ it from that position?
If you’re meeting virtually, or in a hybrid environment, you will need to work even harder to ‘present brilliantly online’ to ensure everyone feels highly engaged and comfortable to contribute.
4. Agree rules of engagement
Start your meetings on time. One person, whose late arrival delays the start time by 15 minutes, wastes 1.5 man-hours of the other six participants who were on time.
Set out and agree your ‘rules of engagement’ as the meeting begins. If tablets and phones are on, check they’re for note taking not for a sneaky bit of cyber working. The reason people need to check their email during meetings is because they are always in meetings, with no time set aside to actually do the work or complete the actions from the last meeting!
Online or in-person, you need to be super clear about how participants can ask questions, share insights or make recommendations, in the context of a psychologically safe environment.
5. Assign roles – including Yoda!
Be clear about who is taking what role. The leader does not have to be note-taker, nor even timekeeper.
You might get someone to do the job of asking the awkward questions – pointing out the elephant in the room, the topic on everyone’s lips that no one ever mentions. This is sometimes referred to as the Yoda role: “Speak the unspoken. I will…”
According to Keith Ferrazzi, author of Who’s Got Your Back, candour in a meeting is a very reliable predictor of an organisation’s success. Organisations that don’t encourage challenge in meetings perform worse.
6. Drive dialogue
Set aside meeting time for facilitated discussion.
You don’t want the loudmouth to dominate and block the input of more reflective characters, so consider breaking the group into small teams (possibly as small as 2s and 3s) and give them time to discuss issues before an elected spokesperson shares their team’s view with the wider group.
After an inclusive discussion, be sure to summarise and check for consensus or understanding before moving to the next topic.
7. Follow up
Whether you meet virtually or face-to-face, follow up is key if your meeting is to achieve its potential. Do it within 48 hours, copying all participants and outlining actions, owners and dates.
You might even consider calling out late arrivers and early leavers – it sometimes stops persistent offenders!
8. Beware of the AOB trap!
Any other business (AOB) is often a ‘blunt instrument’ tacked on the end of a meeting. Just as participants were thinking of leaving, you bring up a potentially controversial topic, but there is no time to do it justice. If the AOB is important, it should be an agenda item in its own right and given sufficient airtime.
In summary
The author Dave Barry said: “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.”
Putting these tips – and others – into action is the subject of Axiom’s workshop How to run meetings and briefings that deliver results, virtually or face-to-face. Our popular workshop ‘How to present brilliantly online’ is also available as an eLearning course or one-to-one training via Zoom or MS Teams with one of our experts.
Get in touch if you think your leaders and managers would benefit.
