Michele Harmon
Mastering running an efficient meeting is a necessary skill for leaders. Most attendees do not like meetings because meetings take time away from doing their jobs, and the organization risks losing some of their bottom lines because of the time away from performing the essential functions of positions. Due to Covid and beyond, meetings have moved from the conference room to an online meeting and now to a combo option, but these occasions still can waste precious time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in nonproductive employee time. You cannot eliminate meetings, but there are fundamental processes and steps you can encourage and model for your employees that will eliminate wasted time and energy in useless meetings.
First, make sure the meeting is necessary. If it is needed, define the purpose of the discussion by visualizing the best possible outcome. If you cannot describe the goal in one sentence, you need to go back to the drawing board. Is the purpose exchanging information, reaching a decision, collaborating on a problem, or reviewing an opportunity?
Second, who should attend the meeting? Only invite those that are necessary. If you have a list of who might want to hear the discussion but are not 100 percent necessary, then be aware that most meeting invitation platforms have options that include a “required” and “optional” invitation feature. Keep the numbers small to be productive. It does not take a village to make every decision.
Third, configure the meeting space to accommodate the group’s size, and it should also be configured to promote speaker interaction and conversations between attendees. If you need attendees to work together, then put them around a table. To make your meetings more productive, separate work friends into different groups. Have your attendees either receive a colored dot when they enter the room and move them to be with others with the same color before the beginning of the meeting. Or, once seated, have each attendee number off, and quickly transfer them to sit with others with the same number. It is painful for a few minutes while moving to their color or number, but professionals will get right down to work. If you need groups to work together, assign individuals in the group with roles such as timekeeper, scribe, devil’s advocate, and the one who will report to the rest of the groups. If you are the only speaker, keep the discussion on track. A little bird walking is okay, but you may need an official mouth monitor for the member that always has a story to tell. You know that person.
Fourth, set ground rules for discussion, time limits for speaking, and procedures. If the meeting follows Robert’s Rules of Order, you need to be an expert on parliamentary procedures. Part of your ground rules should be not to interrupt others, to limit the uses of mobile devices, and when using devices to use them in a way that is respectful to the speaker and other participants. You may want to start your meetings by spending a few minutes during which the group identifies five ground rules they agree to follow. Post your ground rules on the wall on large Post It Chart paper and pass out Post-It notes to each participant. The small notes will save meeting time—because as participants have questions, they write them on an individual Post It. If by the end of the allotted meeting time, their problem has not been answered, the meeting leader can review and either address those questions then, or can take one of the following steps: follow up with an email attached to the minutes answering the questions, announce that the matter will be studied at another time, or filter the problem out because it does not pertain to the subject.
Fifth, have an agenda with an estimated time to start and finish each agenda item and record minutes by taking notes. The minute taker should be the only attendee tapping on a device. You can also record online meetings, but no one will watch them, so you need minutes. An agenda needs to answer: what do we need to do in this meeting to accomplish our goals, what issue is the most important to participants, and what information must be available to discuss the issue. If you do not have all the information, then you are not ready for the meeting. Less is more, too, so keep your agenda simple, short, and straightforward. Make sure your participants bring what they need to the discussion and if they need to read something ahead of time, then send it to them a few days before the meeting and then again the day before. You get it: they have no excuse that the dog ate their homework. Please make sure the minutes are cohesive and correct and send them out to the participants promptly. If there is follow-up required for one or more attendees with deadlines, then here is where you reinforce it. If they do not do their task, it may be documentation time. Minutes are a summary of important information, and it is helpful to use your agenda to anchor your minutes.
When the meeting is over, review the results. Did the meeting solve the issue or make real strides to solve it? If not, you need to push the reset button and work on your meeting leading skills. Ask for feedback from other attendees. You cannot grow without feedback.
Thomas Sowell’s quote that best sums it up for me is “People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” Jason Fired injects some humor when he says, “Meetings should be like salt, a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.”
The information in this article comes from Bov′ee, C.L. & Thill, J.V. (2021). Business Communications Today. Harlow, UK: Pearson, and my experience.
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“Your employees are the heart of your organization.” Dr. Michele Harmon is a Human Resource professional, supporting clients in Texas and New Mexico that range in size from five to more than 3,000 employees. Email: micheleharmon1@gmail.com