Meeting Hygiene V/s Business Impact: The Other Lens

Ever faced a situation when you prepared extremely well for a meeting and people didn’t show up as expected/ didn’t show up at all/ the outcome wasn’t how you expected it to be /it led to an unwanted follow up meeting and more undesired and unforeseen scenarios?

In addition to preparing for our client/internal meetings, being mindful around the hygiene of setting up the meeting plays a huge role in deciding if it will be successful or not and in turn the kind of impact it will make on your business.  For instance, we struggle with long deal cycles in sales not just because of the nature of business or lack of art of selling but also because we may have missed out on few basics around the meeting hygiene.

At first, I used to get extremely agitated to see people turning up late for meetings/ not turning up at all or even stepping out multiple times, unless I realized the why behind.  The meetings we set up are with certain objective(s) we intend to achieve and significant time is spent preparing for those. The most important fragment, however, that can make the meeting a success is the ‘people’ who are going to be a part of it. Well, this leaves us with two choices – either send stinkers and push people to come on time or try and understand the why behind less/no participation. The most used lens to look at this is from the lens of the attendees being at fault for being not present tor partly participative and when I tried to look at it from the other lens.  In my experience, the other lens helped me see the entire picture. .

Few situations to be considerate and mindful about

1.    Were we supposed to meet today?  It never showed up on my calendar – In today’s era, it is an unsaid rule to hold time on calendars for planned meetings, and we all really do it, below are some basics to be mindful of while calendarizing meetings

(i)            As a host, even when you see the meeting showing up on your calendar, doubly check if you have surely invited the right people I have come across meetings that had to eventually be cancelled because, while the calendar was set up and showed up on the meeting hosts calendar, it was never marked o the attendee/ marked to a wrong person.

(ii)           If you are setting up a meeting way ahead in time, it may be a good idea to set up a placeholder on calendar and confirm it 2 days in advance of the meeting so that the time is refreshed for attendees

(iii)         Very often, attendees forget to RSVP to their calendar invite. Do follow up with them to ensure they accept your invite and it flashes up on their screen loud and clear

2.    I thought we were supposed to meet elsewhere – This might sound very basic and obvious and yet very powerful in helping you save time for meetings. Always confirm the medium and location of the meeting so it isn’t left to the last moment.

(i)            If you are meeting virtually, do ensure rooms are blocked at all respective locations and share the details (or steps if required) to join the meeting in advance

(ii)           If you are meeting a client at their office, do check on their address. They may have multiple offices far apart or might have just moved to a new office – the web might not be very dependable.

(iii)         When meeting is in your own office, pre-book rooms. When meeting at a client location, pre-request them to book a room mentioning the other tech requirements for the meeting in advance.

3.     Is this what the meeting was about?  – Whether it is a 1X1 set up or a group one, is important for the attendees to know the agenda. As an attendee, I deserve to know what I can expect from the meeting, whether or not I need to be a part of it, what is expected out of me. I wouldn’t want to spend my time in a meeting that has less/no relevance to what my priorities seem to be at that point. If you have helped me understand the what and why before I turn up for the meeting, you have all the right to hold me accountable on how I show up at the meeting.  

4.    This is peak hour for my core work, I can’t make it to these meetings!  – While setting up weekly team meetings/1X1s/any other frequent meetings, it is a good practice to gain agreement from the group. This is an especially good practice if you’re setting up the meeting virtually with people based out of different time zones, so everyone’s time is well accommodated to.

5.    This is great content but a lot for me to digest immediately, let’s set up some other time to decide/agree here – If you are planning to showcase lot of new content during the meeting in addition to which you need inputs or potentially a decision from the audience, do send a pre-read at least 48 hours before so that people have time to prepare and also the content is afresh in their minds. This will help you save time on explaining each and everything and give you flexibility to rather shortly jump to answering questions the audience might have in addition to be able to spend time welcoming and understanding their inputs.

6.    I want to pee urgently and can’t focus anymore! – Don’t eww this because it is really important. Conducting an offsite and apprehensive of audience stepping out right when you wanted them to be there? Account for breaks in at least every 1.5 hours. Human beings typically need a bio break in every 1.5 hours and if you are not factoring that in, you are 1- spoiling their health and 2 – losing their focus because there is no way they can process anything being shared with their body being so uncomfortable.

7.    I am extremely hungry and all I can think is about food! –While scheduling meetings, it is important to be mindful that you are not making anyone skip their meal to meet with you. Biologically, it is very difficult to focus on a meeting when you are hungry, and this will end up making your meeting very less productive. You might not know what may be a meal time for a particular individual and therefore it is a good practice to ask – ‘ I hope this doesn’t clash with any of your meals’. If I was really interested in what we were going to talk about, I’d have to meet you again to talk about the same and if you wanted to be interested in what you were talking about, you have lost me.

8.    You set up this meeting right after my previous one, were you really expecting me to turn up in time?  -  Wherever you have visibility to calendar before setting up a meeting, factor in at least 15 minutes gap before and after you set up meeting on someone’s calendar (more if the person requires to travel). There is a high chance the previous meeting may stretch and so might yours.

9.    Did you just say we are meeting for a one whole hour? I have been a fan of setting up meetings that are an hour long and  it was not until my manager explicitly told me how he dreaded any meetings that go beyond 45 minutes, that I understood that it is a good idea to design your content for it to accommodate itself in 45 minutes. The average attention span is as much, and the audience will start losing focus the moment it starts exceeding this time.

I am sure there are many more best practices around meeting hygiene, and it is as important to focus on these hygiene factors as it is to prepare for the meeting.

PS - More often than not certain nationalities/regions are stereotyped to be indisciplined for being late to meetings. Ever thought why? No (other than few exceptional cases), it isn’t because they are lazy or less interested / disciplined or even disrespectful. It may also be because they wish to do a lot of work in very limited time, running from one meeting to the other trying to squeeze in a lot in too little. :)