Are you a Master of Meetings?

This sand dollar kind of reminds me of being zen; like you feel when a meeting is going well. Everything just seems to fit and work.

Have you ever walked out of a meeting and thought, “What a waste of time?”

I hear that often and when I dig in deeper, I have discovered that there are a ton of reasons why people think meetings suck.

Leading an efficient and productive meeting is delicate mixture of skill, flexibility and assertiveness.

So, let’s break these down:

Skill

Meeting management isn’t a skill that is overtly taught in most schools or organizations, yet the lack of it creates frustration, disengagement and sometimes even hostility. We’ve all been frustrated by meetings and as a result, we often don’t want to go to more (especially when being run by the same person). Disengagement comes when we let frustration fester and hostility can occur when we force people to feel like they are being forced to waste their time. They can get chippy and their behaviour reflects their frustration.

So, how can you run a tight meeting?

Purpose

Ensure you know why you are meeting. Clearly articulate that purpose (in the agenda and in any pre-meeting communication), as well as, at the start of the meeting. Keep all discussion geared towards achieving that purpose. When conversation diverts from the purpose and starts to go off track, make note of the tangent and steer it back to the topic.

Speaker management

In a smaller meeting, this can be a bit more free-flow with people waiting their turn and just speaking. In larger meetings, however, you need to track speaking order somehow (either people put up their hands and you write down their name or in a virtual meeting, they can “raise their hand” or put their name in the chat). Ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak so if some people haven’t spoken, call on them directly and ask if they would like to share anything. Watch for people who are dominating the meeting and acknowledge them, but ask for other people to share their input to allow everyone an opportunity to speak.

Time Management

Watch the time and move agenda items along to ensure you finish on time. Sometimes you need to cut discussion off (see the assertive aspect). Other times, you may need to say, we aren’t going to achieve our purpose, so we will need another meeting. Do not just extend the meeting. It is also critical to start your meeting on time, regardless of whether people might be coming late. Starting late does not respect those who came on time and teaches people it’s OK to just come late as they won’t have missed anything.

Preparation

An effective meeting facilitator needs to spend time preparing for a meeting. Set a clear, realistic agenda and ensure it is shared with all meeting participants, along with any documents they may need. It is critical that these are circulated before the meeting so people can be prepared. This allows you to spend time discussing content rather than having someone just read it to the group. As well, some people (C & S DISC styles) need time to read and reflect before they are ready to discuss and decide. Additionally, decide how much time you actually need for the meeting and book that. Don’t just book 30 or 60 minutes. If you think you can accomplish your purpose in 15 minutes, then book that. For a longer agenda, try putting discussion time limits right on the agenda to help you stay on track.

Flexibility

I advocate sticking to your agenda wherever possible, but sometimes you do need to deviate. If your purpose is to make a decision by the end of the meeting, but you discover you need more information, you need to be flexible enough to recognize and share that with the group, and then to make the decision at a more appropriate time. As well, while you want to stick to the agenda, if discussion is going a bit long in one area and you can “steal” it from another, flexibility can be practised.

Assertiveness

My first draft of this blog used the word ruthlessness, but that was way harsher than I intended (and a search of nicer ways to say ruthlessness yielded less than helpful results). I don’t mean ruthless in a “I’ll stab you in the back” kind of way, but in a, “I’m not afraid to cut you off and I’m OK if you think I’m rude” kind of way. So in the end, assertiveness seemed more appropriate (although I think the word I want is actually stronger than assertiveness).

Managing an effective meeting means you need to keep people and discussion on track. There are times when you need to say, “OK, discussion is over on this topic” or “I’m sorry, Bob, you’ve already spoken so I would like to hear from everyone else before coming back to you” or even “That is actually off topic/off purpose, so I want to keep us on track.” For some people, interrupting, redirecting or stifling someone is easy or natural; for others, it is the complete opposite. For those who do not naturally lean this way, it will take practice. You need to be OK with the fact that some people may be upset, but rest assured, there will be others who are thankful you are running a tight meeting.

Many meetings suck, but they don’t have to. If this list is overwhelming, then start with one small thing you can do to improve your meetings and practice it until it is natural and comfortable (starting meetings on time is a fairly easy first step). Remember James Clear’s Consistency over Intensity (learn more in this blog post). You don’t need to be perfect tomorrow (or even next week/month/ever). If you aim to be 1% better each day, you’ll be 37 times better after one year. By the end of one year, you’ll be way closer to Meeting Guru!

Want a great checklist? I got you covered! Check it out below and drop me a comment about what you hate about meetings, or what piece of this blog might be the most useful.