Meetings that Inspire

As many of us head back to work after hopefully a few blissful weeks of sunshine and good company, you may share my fervent wish that my diary be filled with meetings which feel less like a scene from the Office and more like this -a photo taken in the company of bright, interesting and interested people this summer fully leaning into topics of conversation which engage them fully and where the flow of ideas is open minded and constructive.

?We all know the common best practices for successful meetings;

1.??????? Define the meeting objectives

2.??????? Ensure there is a clear agenda

3.??????? Create a safe space for open communication

4.??????? Invite only those who need to attend

5.??????? Follow up with clear actions, owners and timelines

?

I’d like to add a couple more however, which in my experience ensure your next meeting leaves you lifted rather than exhausted.

?

Question yourself hard (I mean really hard) on the why. We can be lulled into believing we have a clear answer to what the meeting objective is when in actual fact, the real problem lies elsewhere and won’t be resolved through pulling the full team together.

Take as one example, we may believe the objective is to get a project that has slowed down, back on track. We are aware that the root cause is people being distracted by other priorities. Taking them into a meeting may get their attention temporarily but the real resolution lies in defining clearer priorities up the line so that they are able to focus fully on the project in hand. Simply asking for a status report on actions does not require a meeting and rarely has the hoped for outcome of guilting people into action. Owning and resolving the issue of conflicting priorities with the hierarchy is true leadership and will result in a clearer sense of direction and engagement in the projects without needing to pull people into a meeting.?

Curate the meeting like a pro. The hybrid working environment has put a new onus on managers to attract people back into the office because they can see the value they get out of the time they spend there. This applies to meetings doubly as face-to-face meeting time has become scarcer. If you want people leaning into the topics you want covered, think about what you want the attendee experience to be. A few tips

• Ensure the environment is on a par with the outcome you want from it. A bright and comfortable space with decent coffee and a layout with encourages collaboration rather than confrontation
• Distribute all detailed data in advance and make it clear you expect people to come having read and digested it rather than spending half the meeting explaining a whole bunch of deathly dull powerpoint slides
• Ensure the quieter voices are heard by echoing them (I’d just like to go back to the really valuable point John just made. Perhaps you could expand on it as I think its really relevant).
• Respect peoples time by keeping on track and ending promptly (or even 10 mins early). People will love you for it.

?And lastly, if you are on the receiving end of a meeting that you don’t believe will achieve a useful outcome, for goodness sakes raise it with the meeting owner. Spend 15 mins at the start of every week checking what’s in your diary and questioning what comes in during the week will save you countless hours of “kill me now” time and earn you the respect of colleagues who appreciate you value your and their own time (& sanity)!?

A few ideas to consider as you wait to be offloaded from the ferry home, flick through your LinkedIn pages or simply consider how you want to get the buzz of the meeting above into your working life (albeit minus the hog roast probably!).