Meetings are an essential part of any team's collaboration and communication, but they can also be a source of frustration and wasted time if they are not well planned and executed. How can you keep your meetings on track and make sure they are productive and engaging for everyone involved? Here are some tips to help you improve your meeting skills and achieve your goals.
Before you schedule a meeting, you should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish and how you will do it. A meeting without a purpose is likely to go off track and lose focus. A meeting without an agenda is likely to be chaotic and inefficient. Therefore, you should always define the purpose and agenda of your meeting and share them with the participants in advance. This will help you set the expectations, prepare the materials, and assign the roles for the meeting.
There are roughly 4 reasons to meet – to connect, to align, to debate and to decide. I lead with to connect because humans are social creatures. We crave connection and to be understood. While I am a big fan of asynchronous work I still think we need synchronous communication to build connections. When coming together around a decision to be made it is important to be clear about whether the purpose of that meeting is to debate or decide. Are you in the process of collecting more data or points of view? Do you need to take action right away? You will save yourself a lot of frustration by stating upfront what the goal is and having everyone in the right mindset.
When you have the urge to call a meeting — stop and take a deep breath — then ask yourself, is this meeting necessary? Most meetings have an underlying agenda that is cloaked in micromanagement. Leverage technology to create more efficient processes of disseminating and exchanging information.
Another key factor for a successful meeting is to invite the right people. You don't want to have too many or too few participants, or people who are not relevant or interested in the topic. You should only invite people who have a stake in the outcome, who can contribute to the discussion, or who need to be informed of the decisions. You should also consider the diversity and inclusion of your meeting participants, and make sure everyone has a chance to speak and be heard.
When meetings are necessary — ensure you define a clear objective, properly prepare your materials, only invite contributing personnel, and set a timer. This will significantly increase the efficiency of your meetings by keeping everyone focused on the objective. No one likes it when people “think out loud” on their time — so be prepared and concise.
One of the most common complaints about meetings is that they start late or run over time. This can cause frustration, confusion, and disruption for the participants and their schedules. To avoid this, you should always start and end your meetings on time, and respect the time limits you have set for each agenda item. You can use a timer, a facilitator, or a visual aid to keep track of the time and remind everyone of the deadlines. You should also avoid adding new items or topics that are not on the agenda, unless they are urgent and important.
Do not set standardized (daily, weekly, monthly) meetings without a Clear Objective. For example, “Weekly Synchronization” is not always necessary. Despite the attempt to forecast a schedule, this disrupts the workflow and usually distributes only simple information that can be exchanged more efficiently using technology.
A meeting is not a one-way lecture or a monologue. It is a dialogue and a collaboration between the participants. Therefore, you should always try to engage and involve everyone in the meeting, and make it interactive and dynamic. You can use various techniques to achieve this, such as asking open-ended questions, soliciting feedback, encouraging brainstorming, using polls or surveys, or breaking into smaller groups. You should also be attentive to the non-verbal cues, such as body language, eye contact, and tone of voice, and address any signs of boredom, confusion, or conflict.
The last but not least step to keep your meetings on track is to summarize and follow up. At the end of the meeting, you should recap the main points, decisions, and actions that were discussed and agreed upon, and clarify any doubts or questions. You should also assign the tasks and responsibilities to the relevant people, and set the deadlines and milestones for the next steps. After the meeting, you should send a summary or minutes of the meeting to all the participants, and monitor the progress and outcomes of the actions.
Better yet have an action item template that is accessible to everyone and editable. This helps the team to add and leave comments for the next meeting. Having this online template is better than sending an email. Emails get lost and sometimes it is troublesome to try to find the summary. When there is a link that can be bookmarked and accessed by the team it makes it easier and less frustrating. Invest in simplifying and digitalization.
The three-hour meeting…… The one-hundred-slide PowerPoint…… The requirement to stuff a meeting room full of non-contributors…… And, of course, the worst of them all…… “The meeting to establish an agenda for the pre-meeting in preparation for the real meeting.” Why are these still a thing? In a digital age where information can “literally” move a thousand miles a second — leaders continue to rely on rudimentary methods of information sharing. Undoubtedly, too many leaders “waste” countless hours of productivity sitting in unnecessary meetings every week — and as communication technology continues to evolve, our communication strategies remain stagnant.
Periodically review recurring meetings on your calendar, say quarterly. Any that have outlived their purpose simply cancel. For all others consider how you can either improve or shorten them. Here are some ways to shorten meetings: - Have an agenda. - Use asynchronous methods to provide updates (videos, comments, notes) and use time in meetings only for questions and clarifications. - Provide prep material ahead of time. - Include only those people who need to be there. - Consider breaking up large meetings into smaller, more focused ones. Time is a non-renewable resource. Use it wisely.