How To Make Your Meetings Matter
August 23rd, 2010In continuing our blog series this month on meetings, we have invited Pauline Couture President PCA to give us a guest post on How To Make Your Meetings Matter. Here then are her thoughts on the topic. 
Most people care about money and status, but deep down they know that the only currency that really matters is time. That’s why so many of us resent unproductive meetings. Most organizations have far too many unjustified meetings, causing people to experience mounting stress about what is not getting done while they are sitting in the meeting. Here are a few principles to ensure that your meetings matter:
Clarity
Everyone should know what the meeting is about and why he or she is there. It is okay to have “keep in touch” meetings, as long as they are positive and productive. If the meeting is called to address something specific, there should be clear resolution on next steps, and agreement on how to measure and evaluate outcomes. Far too many organizations sleepwalk through old, unproductive habits.
Brevity
There is no need for meetings to take a long time unless they have a clear agenda to accomplish something—for example, when a group of people commits to working through complex issues to achieve alignment, however long it takes. This can have a powerful bonding effect. Otherwise, the more efficient the meetings are, the better people feel about them.
Inclusiveness
No meeting should leave anyone feeling excluded. Winning organizations do not leave players on the bench. However meetings are convened, organized and managed, they should include anyone who can make a material difference to the matters at hand. And they should never create different classes of people in the organization, insiders and outsiders. Leaders also understand that they need to gain insight into different cultures and conversational styles if they wish to get the best out of their people.
Honesty
Make sure that the meeting provides a forum for people to express their true assessments, opinions and feelings. This is the only way to progress towards great outcomes. Leaders with the courage to face honest feedback are the only ones to achieve sustainable excellence.
Face Time
Seeing each other is extremely helpful in reading subtle signals and feeling a sense of belonging. If you can’t afford the expensive and quasi-miraculous telepresence technologies, there’s no excuse for not using Skype, which is free.
Fun
Human beings need to feel pleasure in their environment and optimism about their future, even when they are intensely focused on outcomes and working very hard. Meetings are a great opportunity to connect with people on a human level, make them laugh—even briefly—and leave feeling refreshed and engaged. A group of people who are able to laugh together will certainly achieve more than a bunch of strangers who barely tolerate each other. Fun engenders loyalty and commitment. It is amazing how many driven, focused leaders entirely miss this point.
All of this is not to minimize the importance of meetings. There is probably no other way for people inside an organization to ensure that they are working towards the same goal and that they are accountable for results. That said, make sure you are inviting the right people to the right meeting for the right length of time. It can make all the difference between brilliant outcomes and quiet failure.
We would love to hear your comments on how you make your meetings matter.
Reminds me of one great tip for avoiding unproductive meetings: “I leave my yellow pad, pen, and coffee cup on the table and walk out. Everyone assumes I’m going to the bathroom. But I simply go to my car and leave.”
Try prepping in adavnce… Do you really want to sit through another meeting where you watch your attendees scrawl unintelligible impromptu graphs on the whiteboard instead of giving you the information in a neatly summarized handout beforehand? No? Then tell your attendees to prepare in advance.
Thanks for this very insightful post Pauline. Most organizers simply don’t take the steps to guarantee that a meeting will be useful. This sure does help.
I think it’s also helpful to reserve time for questions and use visual aides. The reserved time for questions means the discussion won’t steer in a different direction or that you won’t address an issue that was going to be covered at a later point. The visual aides cement the message you are trying to convey, but they also help both attendees and presenters see the direction that the meeting is headed in and offer a quick reference tool.
Thanks for the excellent post. I’m going to put some of this advise to the test, beginning next week! I’ll keep you posted.
Have you watched the hilarious “Donut Jungle” commercial? The one where naive employees are lured with delicious desserts into attending pointless meetings? The commercial is hilarious because it contains a hint of truth: many meetings, especially in larger organizations, are utterly pointless and devoid of usefulness.
Include standing meetings. That’s a classic way to keep a meeting short. It’s really a hilarious concept too, if you think about it – use physical discomfort to force attendees to get to the point :p
Something that is often over-looked is post-meeting communication. It’s simply another tool to help keep your meeting attendees accountable for implementing the decisions made during the meeting and it also helps eliminate future, unnecessary “progress meetings.”
Time boxing and limited speaking time helps in my meetings
I’m in absolute agreement with all the techniques described for turning meetings into productive time with fellow employees. Still, many organizations insist on having meetings at regular intervals, regardless of any actual need for such a gathering. Being on the same page is a good thing, certainly, but it shouldn’t be mandated to the point where meetings have to be planned and attended without some concrete need. If we were all lucky enough to have a meeting planner who followed the tips above, we may have much less use for coffee in the office!
Meetings are the scourge of corporate America. However, it’s a mistake to not attend them if you want to get raises, bonuses, and promotions. It’s not about productivity when you attend (as opposed to the presenter), but about being seen and making your presence appreciated with light humor (if applicable), thoughtful new ideas (be sure to share any that pop up), and support of others’ good ideas. These are just some of the tips that Dr. Lois Frankel gives in her excellent book Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office. She teaches that it’s a mistake to think that meetings are a waste of time and, thus, to skip them. On the contrary, it’s an easy way to promote yourself to bosses and higher ups and also a great way to mix it up with colleagues as well as get to know folks from other departments. In other words, it’s a networking tool. Don’t waste it!
What a great article. We can cut down on pointless meetings if we communicate more. Most meetings are held out of a perceived need for information. In larger organizations, often times the flow of information comes to a grinding halt and precipitates serial meetings. My strategy has always been to identify the underlying reasons that people are not communicating and set up a framework of communication that will cut down the necessity of meetings. Once you do that, “Everyone into the conference room” will become an utterance of the past!