Patrick Lencioni wrote a great book entitled, Death by Meeting. In it he talks about the long standing problem of too many, too few, and too many unstructured meetings. When COVID forced virtual meetings to become a primary way of getting together, these issues were only exacerbated. Zoom fatigue became a real thing, in which people were stuck staring into computer screens, wondering why this couldn’t have been an email.
Here are three tips that will create more productive meetings.
- Have a healthy and regular rhythm of meetings. We have adopted a similar recommendation to Verne Harnish in his book, Scaling Up:
- Annual Retreat to review the strategic plan, and set annual, as well as, quarterly goals. This happens best at an offsite location over a couple of days with the CEO and their senior leadership team.
- Quarterly planning meeting to review progress compared to the plan. This is the place to see if any adjustments need to be made and to firm up commitments for the next quarter. We also recommend this happen offsite and last most of a day.
- Monthly meetings that last several hours and are a shorter version of the quarterly meeting. Instead of reviewing the whole quarter, however, we are reviewing the priorities for that month, which will help us achieve the quarterly and annual goals. Due to the fact that this is only a couple of hours, having this on site usually works best.
- Weekly tactical meetings, also called “working meetings,” in which we can review what is happening operationally, identify any places where we are stuck, and troubleshoot solutions. We also recommend a report on where key metrics are tracking to serve the monthly priorities.
- Daily huddles are small group meetings in which teams talk about what happened yesterday, what they are working on that day, and identify any areas they may be stuck. Any conversations that need to happen are tabled, and happen outside of the huddle. This is only meant to last 10 minutes. No longer.
- Meetings need to have a purpose. Brad Giles, a fellow leadership coach, has a saying, “No agenda. No attender.” In other words, if there is no meeting agenda circulated in advance, he isn’t attending. For much of my career, I held meetings without an agenda. After hearing Brad, I started to create and distribute one prior to each meeting. What I found is, because everyone was able to prepare in advance, we were able to get more done in less time. Now, I won’t run a meeting without one. I also won’t attend a meeting without one, either.
- Meetings need to matter. Attendees need to know that their preparation and participation makes a difference. It is incumbent upon the person chairing the meeting to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to engage. Here are a few simple tips to creating a good meeting culture:
- If one person is dominating the conversation, thank that person for their participation and let them know that you’d like to hear some other perspectives as well.
- Embrace conflict. Invite it, in fact. Meeting leaders can do this by first creating an environment of trust. Secondly, they can call on someone and ask them to provide an alternative view, even if they don’t subscribe to it. This strengthens everyone’s thinking and convictions.
- At the end of each meeting, recap what was discussed and ensure that everyone leaves with action items.
- Start and end meetings on time. People will be more likely to show up early and participate actively if they can count on the schedule.
Meetings don’t have to suck. In fact, they can be the very operating system by which you and your team deliver exceptional results. It takes intentionality to do that. How can you run more effective meetings?