We’ve all been there: The
people who talk and talk and talk. The pointless digressions and asides. The people
who seem to have no place else to be. The time that is sucked forever from our
lives. Sadly, that’s the state of most meetings today.
Let’s face it. Most meetings
are inefficient and ineffective. In fact, half of people polled say meetings are
a complete waste of time.
But meetings are a fact of
life, both in business and out of it. If you work in an office today you have
at least one meeting a week. According to the National Statistics Council, 37
percent of an employee’s time is spent in meetings. And if you serve on a PTO
or board, you probably sit in a lot of meetings.
People generally hate
meetings, and with good reason—most meetings are terribly run. But they don't
have to be. The key is to design and execute a meeting with purpose and
authority, where something actually gets done efficiently and where people feel
their time is well used.
Every meeting should follow
the same simple set of rules, whether it’s a 20-minute stand-up meeting or an
all-day offsite. Here are 15 tips to help you design and executive an effective
meeting:
1. Determine the purpose of
the meeting. Why do you need to have a meeting? What do you want to accomplish?
What do you want the end result to be? Generally speaking, meetings have one or
more of these purposes:
- To share or convey information
- To make decisions or develop ideas or directions
- To coordinate activity or actions
Get crystal clear on the
purpose of the meeting and design it from there.
2. Create an agenda. Whether
it’s a short informational meeting or a major board meeting, every meeting
needs an agenda. It needs to be written and circulated in advance so people can
prepare. If you know what you want to get out of the meeting you can set an
agenda to achieve those goals. And be sure to let people know what they are.
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| Always write and circulate an agenda. |
3. Find a leader. Next,
determine who will run the meeting. Someone has to take charge and run it, and
they have to be efficient, adult, and stick to the agenda. In general, it is
not a good idea to have two people run a meeting. One person needs to take
charge, ride herd, and keep things moving.
4. Choose your location. Pick
a location that is conducive to your purpose and make it easy for people to
attend. If all you need to do is convey information, maybe have a 15-minute
stand-up meeting (also known as a huddle). People are pretty succinct when they
have to stand.
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| Consider a short standing meeting. |
5. Circulate materials ahead
of time. What will people need to bring to the meeting or read and prepare in
advance? Circulate the agenda and any related documents at least two days in
advance. You want people informed and ready to participate.
6. Invite the right people. If
you know the purpose of your meeting you’ll know who to invite, and invite only
those people who really need to be there. Think through what you want to
accomplish and make sure the right people are there.
7. Prepare your speakers. If
you need people to give updates or reports, make sure they know exactly what
you expect of them, and let them know how much time they will have. Give them
at least two days’ notice.
8. Start and end on time. This is crucial. Start on time. Do not penalize those who show up on
time by waiting to start the meeting. Nothing says “I don't value your time”
more than saying, “It’s 11, but we are going to wait another 10 minutes for
those who are running late.” And if you can end your meeting early, people will
love you. We call this buying back time.
9. Lead from the start. Start
your meeting at the appointed hour, immediately welcome people, and state the
meeting’s purpose and goal. Something like: “Thank you all for coming. Today we
are going to discuss the upcoming election, and at the end of the meeting I
want to have candidates in place and an outline for the campaigns.”
10. Establish ground rules.
Good meetings have good ground rules. They need to be established and
articulated right after you state your objectives. I recommend rules like:
- No electronics—ask people top put away their laptops, cell phones, iPads, etc.
- Only one person talks at a time.
- Start and end times will be enforced.
- Accept diversity of opinion.
Good rules will keep your
meeting going.
11. Do not encourage or
reward latecomers. Do not reward latecomers by stopping and recapping for them what
they missed. That says, “It’s ok you were late.” It’s not ok. Don't punish
those who were responsible enough to arrive on time by wasting time for the
latecomers. Be firm.
12. Get balanced
participation. If you have carefully selected the people who need to be there, then
make sure you hear from them. Don't let overtalkers overtalk and don't let
people hide. Make space for the introverts by curbing overtalkers and invite
undertalkers—-by name if you have to—to speak.
People who overtalk or
dominate can really throw the meeting off and discourage others. If someone is
overtalking you have to manage that. Say something like: “Bernie, we’ve heard
from you on this issue already, and I want to hear from some others.”
This also goes for people who are
repeating themselves or what’s already been said. Say: “Sam, I think we already
heard that the Penske project is a bad idea, so let’s hear something new.”
13. Stick to the agenda.
Don't let people stray off topic. Again, this is where you really have to lead
and shut down tangents or stop a discussion that’s gone on too long. If people
move the conversation in a direction that isn't relevant, stop them. Say: “Jane,
that is a good point and we can address that another time, but I want to stick
to the topic at hand.” Encourage people to meet afterward.
14. Run a tight ship. Shut
down chitchat. Enforce your rules. Lead the meeting!
15. Close with
an action plan and recap. Make sure you build this into the agenda so you
don't go over time. Wrap up with what was discussed or decided, and be sure
everyone is on the same page about next steps. Who is going to do what? Don't
leave people guessing.
And that is how you run a
great meeting!
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