How “No Fail Meetings” is Making our Company more Efficient

I enjoy reading. But I don’t simply read for enjoyment any more. I read to be a better leader, manager and to learn more about our industry and how to make livestock and companion animals have healthier, happier lives. In fact, I shouldn’t admit this, but I rarely get to read an entire book from cover to cover. However, I did take the time to read a book I recently received in the mail, “No Fail Meetings: 5 Steps to Orchestrate Productive Meetings (and Avoid all the Rest)”, in its entirety, and by implementing just a few small changes it has already improved efficiency in our office.

Perhaps some of the statistics that author Michael Hyatt outlined in the first few pages drew me into reading this no-nonsense guide. He writes “American businesses hold more than three billion meetings per year and eleven million meetings per day.” On the following pages Hyatt continues with some more real-world figures, saying, “A single Fortune 500 company can expect annual losses in excess of $75 million on bad meetings.” And one, that I’m most familiar with, “Most employees attend an average of sixty-two meetings per month. Executives spend 40 to 50 percent of their work time – an average of twenty-three hours per week – sitting in meetings.” If these stats catch your attention like they did mine, you definitely want to read this book.

Hyatt devised a “No-Fail Meeting” system that he breaks into five steps. I have started using this with many of my team meetings at BioZyme? Inc. The five steps include:

1.     Decide if the meeting is even necessary and, if so, what type and format it should be.

2.     Schedule the right people at the right time for the right length at the right location.

3.     Prepare a results-driven agenda.

4.     Meet and engage in a powerful, productive conversation that moves the needle for your business and your projects.

5.     Follow up by reviewing your meeting notes, completing your assigned tasks and holding others accountable for theirs.

After reading this book, I reviewed my own meeting calendar closely and made the decision that I don’t need to attend every meeting that happens in our buildings. Does that mean I don’t care? No. That means, I am putting trust into my leadership team and equipping them with resources and tools to execute more efficient meetings and methods to report back to me, so I can still stay informed of everything that is happening with the company.

One of the best parts of this book is the resource section in the back. It gives short summaries of different regular meetings and the recommended length and content for each one. It also provides suggested outlines for meeting agendas and meeting report forms. We have adapted these report forms for our company, and perhaps the most important part of the form is the place for action items that come from the meeting: list the action, who will accomplish it, and a deadline. That way you already have the beginning of your next meeting agenda.

Our adaptations of these agendas and report forms have made our meetings run more efficiently and have been able to capture the attention of our employees more so than before. They know the expectations that are set for them and have a written deadline for completing the project when they leave the meeting. The forms have helped me let go of feeling obligated to attend every meeting, as the meeting facilitator can deliver the form back to me after the meeting, and I can follow up with my questions.

Another part of the book that I particularly enjoyed was how Hyatt addressed both face-to-face meetings and virtual meetings. With so many of our staff working remotely, this was a very timely topic for our company. This book offers great insight into both in-person meetings and virtual meetings.

I’m not going to tell you everything the book said. It is a quick read full of great resources, and I hope you take time to read it. Meetings are time-consuming and take up much of our time. We need to get better at hosting and attending meetings, and I think this book is a great read for every business leader out there looking to get back some of their most valuable asset – time.