Have you ever noticed that most meetings are a waste of time? Not just the idle chatter, or the time you spend waiting for late attendees, but the fact that they take 20+ minutes and fill your day with more noise, irrelevant to your approach?
Here’s a helpful guide on how to cure boardroom blues, especially if you’re the one running the meeting!
The assumptions:
Meetings should not be scheduled for more than 20 minutes.
Meetings should be used for conversations that promote results, for decision making, and for relationship building.
They should not be used to disseminate information that could easily be disseminated in another medium.
They should not be used for reporting information that is not relevant to all parties in the room.
The only people invited to a meeting should be those who have some value to add or something to contribute to the agenda and purpose of the meeting.
What to do before, during and after a meeting
Before the meeting, make sure the agenda items are relevant to everyone in the room. Determine the agenda in advance and send it to everyone. Invite them to add or clarify something on the agenda so that attendees have a say in what is going to be discussed. They should be part of the decision making.
During the meeting, engage your audience and stay away from “death by PowerPoint”. I don’t think it’s used effectively the way most use it. You need to engage the right side of your brain to be most effective. You don’t just want to place visual data. Maybe add a picture to back up what you’re saying. The key is to balance the left and right brain to keep the audience intrigued.
To ensure order in your gathering, you can use a Native American tradition that is a “talking stick.” This is a decorative stick and whoever has the stick speaks. Sometimes extroverts drown out introverts, so a stick helps balance this out. Some of the best ideas come from the calmest person because they integrate everyone’s ideas and make everything fit together. Remember that the basic rule is to respect everyone in a meeting.
After the conference There should be action items and timelines of who is going to do what and when that will help determine the big picture. When a meeting is done really well, there is no need to assign positions. People will start volunteering for jobs as the energy in the room moves in the direction of what the goal is. It is a matter of knowing who is going to do what and when.
Follow up is key after jobs are assigned. If someone signs up to do something, it’s up to them to complete their task and if they haven’t completed their task, what is their counter offer?
90 percent of meetings don’t have to happen. But engaging your audience is easy if they have a compelling reason to be there and have had a chance to contribute to the agenda ahead of time. It all comes down to respecting their time and making sure everyone understands the focus of the meeting. Your attendees just check to see if they’re used to hour-long meetings and have been trained to listen only to what applies to them. Keep meetings short and to the point so they are most effective.
BACK
1. Stick to the agenda, especially if other people have contributed to your agenda
2. Listen to your people, be more of a listener than a speaker
3. Find ways to eliminate unnecessary meetings
4. Check that you can be respectful of other people’s time
5. Be clear in your communication
6. Be determined and thoughtful
7. Acknowledge and acknowledge people who are doing a good job
8. Respect the meeting time If you come to plan a 1 hour meeting and finish in 30 minutes, don’t try to fill the time. End the meeting. Don’t expect people to stay late if the meeting is planned for 20 minutes and runs long, honor their time as something important.
NOT TO DO
1. Don’t hog all the airtime yourself
2. Do not scold anyone in front of the group
3. Do not use your blackberry or get on twitter
4. Don’t plan a useless meeting, use an email to get the information out to everyone
5. Do not do the opposite of any of the things mentioned above.
