Ten tools to increase the efficiency of your meetings.
Everyone attends them, most people loathe them, and few are done well and create the desired impact. What are we talking about? Meetings, of course!
"Quote" I love going to Monday morning meetings, where else do you get to sit around for 2 hours and get paid? "Unquote" Attitudes like this are a multi-billion-dollar problem in organisations across the globe. Meetings are supposed to be an engine of productive collaboration and for building road maps for the foreseeable future, and motivating everyone on what is to be done and how it can be achieved.
Yet only a small amount of time spent in meetings is thought to be effective and useful. This misuse of people’s time and energy can be prevented if we become mindful of the pillars that help us to better structure, execute, and experience meetings.
Effective meetings produce sound results, no doubt. Effective meetings have a clear purpose, high participation, good energy, constructive collaboration, and meaningful conversations. In short, effective meetings are those which tap into the wisdom, expertise, and energy of the entire group.
Effective meetings are interactive, engaging and valuable to both the meeting leader and those who participate.
Effective meetings stay on purpose and drive the topics that need to be discussed and use people’s time and energy skillfully by keeping it meaningful for everyone.
Conducting effective meetings is a fusion of a purposeful meeting structure and skilful communication of content. Taking care of the essential elements that go into setting an effective meeting structure is a given, such as topics of discussion and ground rules. The skill of communicating and engaging, however, comes into play in the way we design the meeting to encourage positive engagement of all participants. This is a unique trait that everyone has within and can develop over time or with the help of a coach.
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The following ten tools and techniques are essential building blocks that will help you lead meetings that get results – meetings that are positive, engaging, and efficient. Your next meeting participants will thank you!
1. Have a Purpose
Most people begin planning their meetings by creating an agenda. This is a mistake. The first step should always be defining the purpose of the meeting. Everything else follows the purpose. Ask yourself:
Why are we meeting?
What do we need to achieve?
What are the meeting’s goals and objectives?
What are the meeting deliverables?
What will be different for us as a result of our meeting?
2. Keep it Short and on Point
A meeting should only be as long as it needs to be, otherwise, it goes off track. You can treat meetings like any first date and leave them wanting more. This keeps your people's curiosity alive. When a meeting goes too long, people lose focus and interest. This leaves them dissatisfied and demotivated or feeling slack, and it can feel like you’re wasting their time.
For some meetings, like an everyday scrum, you can even use a countdown clock to stay on schedule.
What conversations need to take place to accomplish our purpose?
In what order do we need to have these conversations?
What is the goal of each conversation?
How do we know we have reached the goal?
What is the best way to conduct each conversation?
3. Design an Agenda
Once you have clearly communicated the meeting’s purpose and objectives, it is time to follow your designed agenda. The key word here is designed. Creating a meeting that is engaging and productive requires more than jotting down a few key areas you need to address—it needs being creative and thoughtful about the “what” that needs to be discussed and the “how” to discuss them. Think of meetings as a series of conversations in which the participants must engage in order to accomplish the purpose.
What prep work must be done beforehand?
What supporting documents are needed?
What are the main topics of the discussion?
How much time needs to be allocated for each discussion?
What are playful ways to keep the energy high and people engaged?
Be creative about how you drive the conversations. Don’t just rely on introducing the topic and waiting for the usual suspects to chime in. There are many tools and techniques you can use to tap into the wisdom of your people — all your people!
Techniques can range from simple “round robins” where you go around the room and hear from everyone to pair-shares, to more elaborate conversation structures like a SWOT Analysis where participants identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Finally, keep your meeting tight, focused, and as short and as efficient as possible.
4. Invite Only Those Who Need To Be There
You may not want to exclude people. But the truth is, if someone doesn’t need to be in the meeting, they’ll feel that you’re wasting their time, which may impact the energy in the room negatively. Many organisations have a bad habit of including everybody and their brother's sisters' cousins on meeting invites. This just wastes time and dilutes engagement. Don’t let this happen. Go back to the purpose of the meeting. Ask yourself:
To accomplish our purpose, who really needs to be in the room?
Whose input, support, knowledge, or expertise is needed to reach the meeting goals?
Then, make sure those people are invited, available, and committed.
There is an exception to this rule, and that is people who can learn from being at the meeting. For instance, an intern or new employee may not have a lot to add to some meetings, but they may be able to benefit from the experience. A good learning experience is a worthwhile reason to invite someone to a meeting.
5. Open Effectively
Like any presentation, if you get your opening right, you are already 90% there. Take the time to open your meeting properly. How meetings are opened foretells how they flow. A strong and clear opening sets the meeting up for success, while a weak or confusing opening invites disengagement, disarray, and disorder. As a meeting leader, it is essential that you mindfully take control right from the start. People need to feel that they are in capable hands and that the leader is going to use their time and energy well. It is your job as meeting leader to set the tone up front.
Opening Welcome: Officially open the meeting. Thank the participants for attending and familiarise the meeting participants to the agenda.
Introduce Ground Rules: Ground Rules or meeting norms are a critical element for effective meetings. Make sure everyone is clear about the ground rules.
Goals and objectives: Clearly state the meeting’s purpose, goals, and objectives. All too often people skip this critical piece which leaves participants either guessing at the objectives or bringing their own agenda to bear. Everybody needs to be super clear about the why and the what of this meeting!
6. Use Technology
Visuals and presentations can do a lot for making meetings more engaging and interesting. Take advantage of meeting rooms with screens to use video and PowerPoint. These help you leave a lasting impression and maintain their attention. Be mindful to not overload meeting participants with PowerPoint though - no one enjoys "death by PowerPoint"!
7. Manage Attitudes
It is your job as meeting leader to manage participants' behaviours that derail or undermine the meeting. It is your job to set the climate for engagement by encouraging constructive behaviour and preventing counterproductive behaviour. Nothing foils engagement like letting irritating behaviour run unchecked in your meeting. To make matters worse, allowing unproductive behaviours to go unbridled creates a knock-on effect and may derail your entire meeting and damage your leading credibility. For example, let one participant hog the conversation creates fertile ground for others to drop out or disappear into their phones. If you have ground rules, this is when you and others enforce them.
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8. Park Things in a Parking Lot
A parking lot is a metaphorical place to document important thoughts and ideas that need to be addressed— just not at this meeting. This is a procedure that helps keep the meeting from being derailed by conversations that are important, but not significant to the present meeting. When people start to discuss something that may be connected to the topic, but not essential to this meeting, simply divert it to the parking lot. This can be done visually on a whiteboard or with sticky notes on the wall. Be sure to address the next steps for parking lot items before you call an end to the meeting.
9. The Minutes
Like any good story, any good meeting needs a good ending. At the end of your meeting, wrap it up. Review what the meeting achieved, as well as any decisions made, plans put into action and timelines agreed upon moving forward and what was parked in the parking lot and how or when to address it.
This has a dual purpose. Most importantly it helps you get the maximum benefit from the meeting, ensuring that it generates desired results and a clear plan of action. As an added benefit, it also leaves people feeling like the meeting accomplished something, increasing their motivation for action and enthusiasm for future meetings.
10. Close and Appreciate
Congratulations! You’ve just conducted an effective and productive meeting. Make sure you end it on a high note. Take the time to officially close the meeting and thank everyone for their input and collaboration. Time is our most valuable resource; be sure to show your appreciation to the people who gave you their time and reinforce the message that you value their contributions.
Bonus Tip: If you want to ensure you are running effective meetings, take five minutes at the end of your meeting to do a quick evaluation or send out a survey to your people. Try doing a quick thumbs up/down with your participants. Simply ask the attendees:
Thumb Up: What worked well with this meeting?
Thumbs Down: What could we do differently next time to make it even better?
Getting input and feedback from your meeting participants will assist you to improve your meetings and create effective and engaging future meeting designs.
The ability to lead effective meetings from wherever and on whichever platform is an indispensable skill in every industry. It’s time to stop wasting time and money and know how to lead meetings that matter with confidence, purpose and meaning.
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