For everyone that works, volunteers, or has a family, meetings are a way of life. To many office workers, the majority of the workday is spent meeting. Meetings are regularly lampooned as a combination of boring, inefficient, berating, or just a waste of valuable time. Here are a few tips to consider that might help make the meetings you attend more valuable to both you and the other participants.
Understand what type of meeting it is and the expected outcome
Roberts Rules offers one view which is helpful in organized bodies...
- Regular meetings are recurring meetings to complete standard business
- Special meetings are called to conduct business that needs to be addressed before the next regular meeting
- Adjourned meetings is a continued meeting to address unfinished business from a prior meeting
- Annual meetings are for larger structural decisions (elections, etc.) and annual reporting
- Executive sessions are private sessions for just the executive body (officers, top-level lieutenants, etc.)
- Status update: also called an information sharing meeting, this is a meeting to share information across participants.
- Working meeting: collaborating with others to achieve a particular goal or produce a particular deliverable
- Team building: anchoring the cohesiveness and productivity of the team in order to accomplish work through individual and team efforts
To make a meeting matter, remember why you're meeting and stay focused on that goal.
- Setting the stage: if the meeting invitation is electronic, the subject line sets the stage for the conversation. "Catching up" if you're meeting with a friend might be appropriate, or "Walker Case" if you're discussing a particular litigation.
- Agenda: people like to know what comes next, and many meeting attendees will stay focused on the conversation at hand as long as their finger is pointing (or virtually pointing) at the agenda item. If you find some attendees tend to jump ahead a bit, it's alright to add time to the agenda (e.g., item #1 from 8:00 to 8:15) to ensure time and attention is given to each item.
- Control the wandering: if the conversation starts to drift to things outside the agenda, it's alright to tactfully acknowledge the new topic, ask the group if this is something that would require some time to be discussed, and gain agreement to return to the purpose of the called meeting.
While there are always goals to be achieved, meetings don't have to be death by a thousand cuts. A good way to start and end each meeting is with a conversation focused on the people, not the goal. Talk about the weather, share something lighthearted and appropriate, and do what you can to put people at ease. Ask how people are doing, and be sure to really listen: it's always a big deal when someone trusts the people in the meeting enough to share something personal.
Don't have the meeting that doesn't need to happen
If there isn't anything to discuss, no relationships to build, no goals to achieve, no information to share, then: don't have the meeting! If it's a recurring meeting, a quick note giving the time back is always appreciated. For one time meetings, offer other ways to connect that might be easier on people's schedules (email discussions, collaboration tools, etc.). With so much technology at our fingertips and so many meetings on our schedules, it's a wonderful present to use the former to reduce the latter. :)
Meet - and maybe exceed - expectations
Everyone's time is valuable, and starting and ending the meeting on time allows each individual to plan the rest of the day with some greater certainty. If the goals of the meeting are achieved earlier, celebrate and give the time back - it's a present to both yourself and the attendees.
If you're in a professional setting, it's helpful to remember that people often have back to back meetings. High schools often provide 4-9 minutes for class change so students can travel from one class to the next. Consider bringing this same practice into your workplace and personal life. Starting a meeting a few minutes after the hour and ending a few minutes before shows consideration for others. Be sure to let everyone in the meeting know you're doing this so it isn't a surprise.
Recognize the opportunity cost
Every person in the world has choice, and something is always surrendered to attend a meeting.
When someone agrees to meet for coffee, it could be taking that person away from family or personal obligations. If an individual chooses to attend a working session, there is other work that isn't being done to make room to meet. Two hours meeting on project status updates may be two hours a person will be working late to finish everything already on the work plate.
People need to know they made the right choice, so:
- Be nice
- Thank them for their time and attention
- Not every time, but some of the time, recognize aloud that every person could choose to be somewhere else and that you're glad each chose to come to the meeting
Bryan
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