How to Lead Better Meetings
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Last year, my company decided to write “Communication Standards” to govern the way we communicate internally. We wanted every single employee to know when to use email versus Slack, what we expected people to include in meeting agendas, and even standards of whether to call a meeting in the first place.
I was asked to spearhead this project of creating our Communication Standards, which involved collaboration across every team in the company. The beginning of the project felt quite daunting. I had to ensure that whatever standards we created were not only true to me, but also true to the entire company.
Now, some people would kick off a project like that by immediately hosting a meeting: get a ton of people in a room together, ask for their ideas, debate those ideas, then argue until there was rough alignment.
But I think that’s usually an awful way to launch a project.
Why? Because people can often make way more progress by working asynchronously at the start, then getting together for a meeting later. (“Synchronous” means at the same time, like hosting a meeting. “Asynchronous” means everyone participates in their own time, like sending comments over email, Slack, or a collaboration tool.)
For our Communication Standards project, I drafted a shared document with some ideas that people could react to, then shared it with a half-dozen people to hear their thoughts. They responded asynchronously with their feedback, then I made some tweaks and shared it with a few more people.?
And we did this until we hit the point where we had rough agreement on roughly 90 percent of what we wanted to do. Then we did a few physical meetings to hash out the final 10 percent in person because it’s almost always easier to debate contentious topics in a live meeting than by sending text comments back and forth.
Do You Even Need to Have a?Meeting?
I open with this story because it’s indicative of how you need to think about meetings. The first — and arguably most important — step of hosting a meeting is to evaluate whether a meeting is even necessary.?
Too often, people default to calling a meeting when that may not be the best option to accomplish whatever you want to do.
So, begin by asking yourself: Could the decision be made over email rather than hosting a meeting? Or perhaps a Slack poll could gather the information? Or could I make initial progress by creating a shared document where we can all comment together?
If you can efficiently gather the information in another way, don’t conduct a meeting.
The word “meeting” evokes frustration and hatred in the minds of many employees, and the biggest reason is because people don’t ask themselves the questions above when scheduling meetings.?
The software company Atlassian recently found that the average employee spends 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings, and 73 percent of employees do other work in meetings. Yikes!
Poorly conducted meetings sap time and energy that could be spent doing other things. And yet, meetings can actually save time when used properly. A well-conducted meeting can provide clarity and alignment which could potentially alter the direction of your team or the company. The key is not to avoid meetings, but to get better at conducting them.
I’ve now had the chance to conduct hundreds of meetings over the past decade: strategic planning meetings, team retrospectives, iteration planning sessions, weekly team meetings, company all-hands meetings, leadership team offsites, and others.?
In that time, I’ve realized that meetings don’t need to suck. If you’ve just started leading your own meetings, fear not! Even though meeting facilitation can be a bit intimidating, it’s totally within your reach.
How to Prepare for a?Meeting
If you’ve exhausted your asynchronous options and decided that a meeting is indeed necessary, the next step is to determine the objective of your meeting.?
You should be crystal clear on what you want to get out of the meeting: Do you want the group to brainstorm ideas to solve a problem? Are you trying to gather input to make a decision? Are you seeking buy-in for a decision you’ve already made??
Once you’ve gotten clarity on what you’re trying to accomplish, communicate that goal to the meeting attendees so they’re on board as well.
You must also decide what falls within the scope of the meeting. If you don’t define boundaries for the discussion, it will be easy for the meeting to go off the rails.?
For example, I once watched a junior product manager (PM) lead a product demo of a new software feature that was in beta testing. The entire meeting got off track because audience members kept suggesting new features they thought the team should add, rather than giving feedback about what had already been built.?
The problem could have been avoided if the PM had simply kicked off the meeting by specifying his goal for the meeting: “We won’t be adding any new features right now, so I’m primarily looking for feedback on the product’s current features and its user interface before we launch this initial feature in two weeks.”
In addition to having a meeting objective (what you want to accomplish), you should always prepare a meeting agenda (how you’re going to accomplish it). Many people like to mentally prepare for meetings, so send an agenda before the meeting. The agenda will keep you and everyone else on track during the discussion.
Frame the agenda as outcomes you want to achieve rather than topics you want to discuss. Doing so will signal to attendees that you’re interested in action — not aimless discussion.?
For example, rather than listing “Discuss product pricing” (topic) as an agenda item, it’s better to say “Decide whether to give a rebate to client X” (outcome). And instead of putting “Rebate for client X” (topic), you should instead say “Decide whether to give a rebate to client X” (outcome). As a meeting facilitator, everything you do should be oriented toward trying to achieve a specific outcome, not just discussing an idea in theory.
You also don’t want to show up at the meeting and find out that you don’t have the necessary info to make a decision. Prepare for the meeting by collecting pertinent information or data that you may need the discussion.?
If the purpose of the meeting is to find ways to deepen your company’s partnership with your largest client, consider bringing a list of the client’s most recent development requests, your company’s product roadmap, and stats on how much revenue the client generates for your company.
Another question you may wonder when preparing for your meeting is, Who should I invite to this meeting??
That’s a great question, and it can be a tough one. Overall, I’ve noticed that meetings are far more productive when eight people or fewer are in the room. For this reason, I try to limit the size of my meetings whenever possible.?
The tricky thing is that you need to thread the needle between two competing goals:
It’s not always possible to keep the number of attendees to eight people or fewer — especially if you’re including stakeholders from multiple departments. But I try to meet both those objectives whenever possible. The key is that you want every relevant person but no one else.
Different Meetings for Different Purposes
For recurring meetings, I’m a huge fan of the Patrick Lencioni meeting model, laid out in his book Death by Meeting. Lencioni argues that you should host different meetings for different purposes.
“To make our meetings more effective, we need to have multiple types of meetings, and clearly distinguish between the various purposes, formats, and timing of those meetings.” -Patrick Lencioni
Specifically, he recommends four different types of meetings to hold on a routine basis:
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Execute Your Agenda During the?Meeting
Alright, you’ve put in the prep time to ensure the meeting is set up for success. Now you need to execute on your plan in the meeting itself.
The first critical step to hosting a productive meeting is to start on time, regardless of whether everyone is there yet. I’ve started telling colleagues that we’re going to run meetings like a train station runs its train schedule: the trains leave on time, regardless of whether everyone is on board yet.
One final note to belabor this point: Starting late sets an implicit norm that people can arrive late with no consequences, which is a terrible norm to set. A better norm is to start on time, which will teach people not to be late next time because they don’t want to miss key information.
When you kick off the meeting, begin by reminding people the objective of the meeting. Also, use this intro as a time to explain the stakes of the meeting.?
Build drama and explain the stakes of how the group’s decision will impact others. This will help attendees focus on the meeting rather than daydreaming or doing other work during the meeting.
As you work your way through the agenda, make sure people take the time to fully discuss and understand each problem before generating solutions to that problem.?
Solutions are more fun to discuss than problems, so the group will push toward “solution mode” as fast as they can. But don’t let them jump ahead. It’s often counterproductive to discuss potential solutions too early before everyone has a full understanding of the problem. Articulate and agree upon the problem before suggesting solutions.
In almost every meeting, someone will bring up a topic that wasn’t on your agenda. When that happens, it’s your job as the facilitator to gauge whether that topic is worthwhile for the group to discuss at that time. If the tangent seems like a productive usage of the group’s time and you have the right people in the room, give yourself the latitude to steer off-course.
However, most tangents are counterproductive and you’ll need to learn how to recognize when to cut them off. When unproductive tangents arise, direct the group’s attention back to the agenda and ask attendees to take tangential conversations “offline” with a smaller group after the meeting.
One thing that’s often helpful in these situations is to jot down a “parking lot” of future discussion topics. When someone brings up a great topic that doesn’t fit in the scope of the current meeting, record that topic as a future discussion item on a whiteboard or shared document. Using a parking lot ensures that you won’t lose sight of important topics while also showing that you see merit in the idea the person wanted to discuss.
Encourage Healthy?Debate
Many of the best meetings involve passionate debate. Debate shows that people care and they’re willing to put themselves out there to make the right decision for the company. It’s natural and healthy for people to disagree, and disagreement leads to better decisions.?
Engaged dissenters are 100 percent better than disengaged zombies.
“Meetings are boring because they lack drama. Or conflict. This is a shame because most meetings have plenty of potential for drama, which is essential for keeping human beings engaged.” -Patrick Lencioni
Some team members will hesitate to speak up with a dissenting opinion, so it’s your idea to flush out those disagreements. You want all of the information on the table so the group can make the best decision possible.
The first few comments in any discussion tend to sway the group in a specific direction. If you notice that everyone keeps agreeing with the points that are raised (often called “groupthink”), stop the discussion and point out what you’ve observed. By acknowledging groupthink, you can push the group back toward dialogue rather than head nodding.
“When two partners always agree, one of them is not necessary.” -Dale Carnegie
It’s also important to coax insights out of less talkative team members. Don’t let extroverts suck up all of the air in the room. Many of the best insights come from team members who listen more than they speak. If you notice that one of your team members hasn’t shared his or her perspective, invite them to join the discussion. A simple invitation like, “John, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this,” can give introverted team members the encouragement and safety to jump into the foray.
Beware that confident, talkative team members tend to interrupt quieter introverted team members. Don’t let this happen. As the discussion leader, it’s your prerogative to “interrupt the interrupter” and encourage the original speaker to finish saying whatever they had begun to say. Doing so gives space to introverted team members and also signals that you’ll fight for their opinions to be heard.
After you’ve encouraged healthy debate and disagreement during the meeting, you eventually need to move the group toward agreement and next steps.?
At the end of the meeting, you want everyone to be on the same page. The best way to do that is to institute a culture of “Disagree and commit.” This concept comes from Amazon, which encourages all of their team members to assertively share their opinions in meetings, but fully jump on board with the decided next steps once an eventual decision is reached — even if the group’s decision is not what you would have personally decided.
Amazon describes this concept well in their company leadership principles:
“Have backbone, disagree and commit. Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting…Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.”
Here’s one way to encourage team members to disagree and commit: “While we’re in this room, I want everyone to throw punches and disagree strongly. But whatever we land on, when we walk out those two doors, I don’t want anyone who wasn’t in this meeting to be able to tell who was on each side of the fence for this decision. We will fully commit to the decision — whatever it may be.”
Who Will Do What by?When?
Become known as someone who is respectful of others’ time by always ending meetings on time.?
If the conversation is still going strong at the end of the scheduled time, ask the group how they’d like to proceed by saying something like, “I think we’re getting somewhere with this discussion, but I want to be respectful of everyone’s time. Should we schedule another time to finish this discussion or does everyone want to continue the discussion now?”
Whenever you do wrap up the meeting, be sure to conclude by summarizing the takeaways and next steps. Conclude every meeting with action items: WHO will do WHAT by WHEN??
Without a clear owner and timeline, assume that nothing will get done.
After the meeting, hold the group accountable to their agreed-upon next steps by emailing recap notes to all attendees within one day of the meeting. Timeliness is important so you don’t forget the core aspects of the meeting or lose momentum with the rest of the group.
Then, a few days later, you must circle back with the team members to see if they’ve completed their action items. This is one of the hardest and most neglected steps of running a meeting, but it’s also one of the most critical ones. Follow-up is the difference between six people bullshitting in a conference room versus six people impacting the future of the company.
The biggest lie of Corporate America is that meetings are a waste of time.?
Meetings don’t have to suck. When conducted properly, meetings can save time, improve efficiency, clarify objectives, and inspire action. You just need to put in the pre-work and post-work to make them productive.
5 Practical Tips for Leading Great?Meetings
Additional Reading
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