#MiPDV – Prepare for Meetings

Last week we looked at why meetings are for action ( link ).?

There’s a corollary to that perspective: when you show up for a meeting, you need to be prepared.?

Even if you are a meeting participant, you need to be ready.?It doesn’t matter if the meeting is in person, virtual, or hybrid: you need to prepare.?

If you show up unprepared, you’re wasting everyone’s time – including your own (and if you’re so busy, then why would you waste your time?).?

How many times have you shown up for a meeting where someone admits they didn’t prepare? Often, they will use the excuse that they “have been busy” … but then again, who isn’t busy??

Suppose you are going to attend a meeting. What should you do to prepare??

Praburam Srinivasan provides a nice checklist in a blog post on ClickUp . He calls it “active participation” and states: “Active team participation has the potential to turn an energy-sapping discussion into a vibrant exchange of ideas.”?

Of course, the “vibrant exchange of ideas” can then be turned into discrete actions to propel the ideas forward.?

He provides 10 keys to active participation:?

1. Understand the agenda. While this may seem basic, think about how many times you have only skimmed the agenda (if you read it at all) … I’m guilty of this behavior more times than I care to admit. But Srinivasan’s point is to really understand it, so you are fully prepared.
2. Take on a meeting role. By offering to help with the meeting, you’re taking some of the load off the organizer, and you’re requiring yourself to actively listen and take notes.
3. Contribute to the meeting agenda. Suggesting changes to the agenda helps to position you to play a greater role in the meeting, which requires additional preparation from you.
4. Harness nonverbal communication. While Srinivasan speaks to mastering your own nonverbal communication, you can use these same skills to assess how others in the meeting react to the topics on the agenda, often before the meeting occurs.
5. Challenge the echo chamber. Do you know what position others in the meeting have on the agenda topics? Can you find out in advance of the meeting so you can better prepare your position?
6. Start with check-ins. Small talk at the beginning of the meeting is important, but with just a bit of preparation, you can use small talk, for example, to extend your network, to get an update on other projects/teams, or to try out some new ideas.
7. Leverage empathy and humility. By getting a bit of recent background about meeting participants, such as new news, you’ll be in a better position to be empathetic to their situation.
8. Use positive language. Here is where knowing the agenda and preparation can help you to reframe any negative feelings towards a topic into more positive language. I personally like the “yes, and” approach to start reframing an issue in a public discussion.
9. Manage your emotions. Is there someone who will be present that you have friction with? Think ahead about how you put those issues aside and help to create a productive, positive environment in the meeting. I’ve had to de-escalate too many situations where two people in the meeting had deep-seated conflicts that they refused to leave outside.
10. Become a closer. This point harkens back to last week's article – meetings are for action, but unless the actions are agreed and documented, then they are meaningless.?

You can read the entire post at

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So now we know that it takes effort to be a good meeting participant.?

What if you are the meeting organizer??

You need to prepare well in advance. Every meeting you host will reflect on your reputation – do you want to be known as someone who is well-prepared or someone who is not? In addition, if you wait until the last minute to send out an agenda – and how many meetings have you attended that had no agenda?? – then you are signaling to the invitees that the meeting is unimportant.?

How should you prepare? An article written by Jenny Fernandez, MBA, 费 珍妮 , Kathryn Landis , and Julie Lee, Ph.D. for Harvard Business Review provides a straightforward, 4-step process to prepare to host a meeting:?

1. Know why you’re holding a meeting. While this seems obvious, we’ve all attended too many meetings where we ask ourselves why the meeting was held. You can review last week’s #MiPDV to see my position on determining whether a meeting is worth having.
2. Craft a clear agenda. This point also should be obvious, but in my experience, it’s usually overlooked. The authors provide some excellent questions to help you determine if the agenda is clear. In its most basic form, does the agenda achieve the objective(s) of the meeting, and are the right people invited to the meeting? If there is a mismatch, you have more work to do.
3. Prepare your talking points. Don’t show up and “wing it” – do your homework and be ready for the meeting. Do all of your talking points adequately support the agenda and meeting objectives? If not, what talking points need to be enhanced, added, or eliminated?
4. Help your participants prepare, too. Are there materials which the meeting participants should review before the meeting? If so, send them out and give them plenty of time to review them. As an example, I have a friend who provides at least a week for meeting participants to review even short articles.?

You can read the entire article at

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The bottom line is that meetings require an investment of time to prepare, regardless of whether you are the organizer or a participant.?

What other approaches do you use to prepare for meetings??

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That’s mi punto de vista #MiPDV.

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