Meeting Fatigue

“You know what “MM” stands for? Not Middle Management but Meeting Managers.” , lamented a visibly exhausted, over worked manager. If there is a common thing that most people from top to bottom in an organization hate, I would argue that it is wasting time in long, inefficient meetings. The worst thing about inefficient meetings is that it leads to more meetings to resolve issues that cannot be resolved in one meeting. There are even “meetings to prepare for meetings”, where managers gather the team to put together information or materials in preparation for their meetings, often with their bosses. There goes your domino effect of meeting avalanche.

What is the root cause of this meeting fatigue that we observe at many organizations? Is the solution to do away with meetings? Verne Harnish, author of “Scaling Up- How a Few Companies Make it…and Why the Rest Don’t”, describes the meeting rhythm as the heartbeat of the organization. It is like the drummer in the jazz band that helps the team to play to the same beat. It is about alignment.

In running our business, it is important to set the right rhythm where everyone in the organization can dance to in unison. This is what Verne calls the meeting rhythm. He advocates that we should have:

• The Daily Huddle: 5-15 minute meeting to discuss tactical issues and provide updates. These are quick touch points to save us time in unproductive emails that many of us are familiar with.

• The weekly meeting: 60-90 minute discussion to review progress on quarterly priorities and tap collective brainpower into addressing one or two key issues.

• The monthly management meeting: A half to full day meeting where senior, middle and frontline managers come together to learn and address one or two big issues. This is also designated to transfer knowledge, values, and approaches from upper to middle management.

• The quarterly and annual planning meetings: One to three day offsite meeting where leaders update the strategies, establish quarterly goals.

Most of us are familiar with the weekly, monthly and the quarterly/annual planning meetings. Not many would have daily huddles. It is interesting to note that these are meetings with specific focus and Verne goes into specifics of how to run these effectively.  Regardless of how we structure our organization and which management philosophy you subscribe to, meetings seem to be the fabric of running a business. Brian Robertson, founder of HolacracyOne organization has a different view on how organizations should be structured and run, and has his own sets of meetings: Governance meetings where roles and accountabilities are clarified and defined; Tactical meetings to move projects and share information; strategy meetings every six months to set the broad directions.

Whichever management philosophy you adopt, you will have your set of meeting rhythms.

It is true that as the organization grows in size, we need meeting rhythm to ensure everyone on the team is focused and plays to the same tune. The root of the problem is not about having meetings but about the way we conduct meetings. We all have had our share of experiences in long ineffective meetings. If you recall one of these meetings, it is likely that it exhibits some of the following elements:

• Who to involve in meetings?

We often make the mistake of getting everyone who may be involved in the issue to be in the room thinking that it is most efficient so that we can solve all issues in one meeting. It NEVER happens. What happens is that you have people who come into the meeting but wonder why he/she is involved and slowly drift away clearing his/her inbox on the laptop. Worst, you have people who come into the meeting with their own agenda or concerns that pulls the discussion into a different direction ending up having divergence rather than convergence of views towards solving an issue.

Be focused on the issue that the meeting is trying to resolve and get the right people into the meeting room. Steve Job is known to be ruthless in keeping his meetings as small as possible. In one tale, Jobs was in a weekly meeting with Apple’s ad agency and spied someone who didn’t regularly attend. He asked who she was, listened to her reply, and politely told her to get out: “I don’t think we need you in this meeting,” he said. “Thanks.”

So, scrutinize the meeting invitation list to make sure the people are absolutely needed in the discussion before you hit the “send” button. The next time you get invited into a meeting, ask yourself why would you be needed before accepting the meeting invite.

• What problem are we solving?

We are taught to set meeting agendas clearly before calling a meeting. However, have you noticed how the discussion goes in meetings where everyone pours out their concerns and spin the issues in circles? Probably what we have not learned is the art of facilitating a meeting to keep the focus on the core issues to be resolved. Meetings should not be a social gathering where we allow everyone in the room airtime to share their views or add in more “possible issues”.

Be focused and stay on time. Be very clear of the objective of the meeting and stay on track. Be ruthless to people who may be going off tangent and save everyone’s time by being effective instead of “being polite”.

• How are we driving the discussions?

Brian Robertson, founder of HolacracyOne organization has a different way of running meetings which might be the quick fix that we need to solve the “meeting” problem. His approach is to “triage” issues, focusing on “one tension at a time”, helping participants quickly get to a workable solution that satisfies the person who raised the tension. Out of the various elements of an effective meeting that Brian highlighted in his book: Holacracy– The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World, I would like to highlight three elements that I think we can use immediately:

• Check-in and Closing Rounds

Check-in round allows all present to notice and share whatever is on their minds that might be distracting them. It can be a customer issue on the mind of the sales person that might distract him. This check-in round builds trust where people in the meeting are aware of what is on the mind of others and at the same time, gets the members to be more “present” in the current moment.

Closing round gives each person an opportunity to share reflections about the meeting.

In both rounds, people speak one at a time with no discussion or response allowed. This is critical to avoid meetings evolving into personal discussions and also to create a safe space for people to open up.

• One Tension at a time

Instead of the word “problem”, Brian prefers to use a neutral term “tension”. Tension simply means the feeling of a specific gap between current reality and a sensed potential. A tension is not a “problem” and not necessarily needs a “solution”. So, in holacracy, “processing tension” is used to point to an opportunity to move the way things are in the present moment a little closer to the way things could be.

In meetings, process one tension at a time. We often get entangled in long discussions with no conclusions where everyone jumps in to give their opinion, air their views and add on their list of “potential issues that might happen” or additional related problems to be solved. We end up having a ball of messy issues without means to find the head of the thread. So, a simple rule can work wonders. Start by processing one tension at a time and stop people from piling on their piece before we solve the “tension” at hand.

• The “What Do You Need?” Approach

Start by asking the team member who raises a specific agenda item: What do you need? Be clear about the problem we are solving, or the tension we are processing (in holacracy terms), before we move forward. This question focuses the meeting on the key issue and prevents others from piling on with their own concerns. The meeting will move on to the next agenda item when the person who raises the agenda item can answer yes to the question “Do you have what you need?”.

The skill set to drive effective meetings looks like effective parenting skills to me. You are expected to know when the baby is born! Take a step back and review how you are driving your meeting rhythm today and how effective your meetings are in moving the organization ahead, one meeting at a time.