Meeting Etiquette

How many times have you been invited to a meeting with no agenda, no framing, and no context? All you have is a list of participants, which you are expected to utilize to glean some insight into the context of the meeting. Someone from the orientation team at your university is invited, and its summer time probably means the discussion will revolve around some summer to fall transitory components for the first-year class. Gathering context clues from the participation list is a learned skill contrived from poor business etiquette, placing the supervisee team in a position to do the work that the leadership team should be taking initiative on.

What can you do to be a demonstrably better leader for your unit in some simple steps that you can begin practicing right now? You’ve come to the right place.

Attach meeting minutes, notes, and agendas directly to the calendar invite.

Setting the stage for the conversation should not be too much to ask, but with how busy things get, it seems to be the first missed opportunity to provide clarity to those you’re inviting into the space. How many times have you gone to a meeting that was put on your calendar with no agenda? Did it feel good? Did you feel prepared and ready to engage fully? Did you feel like you were processing in the moment while trying to provide meaningful contributions to the question at hand? My advice is to not replicate those peculiar business practices, save everyone the trouble, and reap the benefits of your team appreciating you taking their advice in because they’ve probably asked for this before. Shoot for this to get out at least a week in advance of the meeting!?

Provide a 2-3 sentence summary of the reason for the meeting in the calendar invite.

This should be done in addition to the previous contribution. You know what it's like to be caught meeting after meeting and not having the time to prepare for one in the way you would like. As a leader, frontload the work and provide a summary of why the meeting is being called in addition to the minutes. The minutes provide the talking points, and the summary provides the why. Consider the following sentence structure:

1. Name the topic: “Hey team, for this meeting we will be discussing _____.”
2. Name why the topic came up: “Based on some recent strategic planning initiatives, we are hoping to ______.”
3. Name the specific component of the topic: “We wanted to spend some time reviewing our policies regarding _____.”
4. Highlight their value and add to the conversation: “We know this is an area you work closely in, so we wanted to gain your insight into the challenge and provide space for your recommendations.”

Put it all together!

“Hey team, for this meeting we will be discussing our first-year continuous orientation programming. Based on some recent strategic planning initiatives, we are hoping to provide ongoing first-year programmatic opportunities beyond convocation. We wanted to spend some time reviewing our policies regarding RA responsibilities in those first 2-3 weeks post-move-in. We know this is an area you work in, so we wanted to gain your insight into the challenge and provide space for your recommendations."

Please, not every meeting needs to last an hour.?

This should go without saying. Consider what makes sense for your unit; however, I tend to be of the opinion that 30-minute meetings across the board would benefit the overall higher education ecosystem. Think back to all the task-oriented meetings you had and how much of the time was spent not discussing the task at hand. When we are focused on accomplishing tasks, we should devote appropriate and proper attention to them. I am not arguing for transactional business relationships. Rather, consider the amount of time freed up when meetings become a workspace and shorten. Now,? all of a sudden, taking the additional time outside of your meetings to honor and take care of the conversation with a colleague becomes all the more real. Shorter meeting standards charge participants to be appropriately succinct and brief in their contributions and free up time across the board for us to be present in the open, relationship field we are so privileged to be a part of. Consider how you might be able to find time to shorten standing meetings that either never make it to the budgeted time allotment or do not utilize the allotted time in a more efficient manner.

Like I said, we’re keeping it brief this week. Those three tangible, actionable considerations will have an immediate positive impact on your unit. In summary, these actions all demonstrate a willingness and desire to respect the time of the people you are inviting into the meeting and not belabor their calendars with meeting after meeting. Everyone wants to be under the leadership of someone who respects their time, and by giving people back time when appropriate, you allow them to be more present and engaged in meaningful ways. Implement these practices, and let me know if you see any tangible benefits!