Are your meetings as boring as a mash potato museum?
Have you ever attended meetings and wonder why you are in the room? What about those meetings where you have no idea what the agenda is, what they are trying to achieve, or who is in control of the meeting? Kind of suggests they are out of control…right? Have you ever left a meeting thinking.. well, that was a waste of time? Often meetings are an absolut waste of time, a place to sleep, or an excuse for a gab fest! The art of a great meeting is simpler than we think!
The only reason you should be having meetings is to collaborate on an outcome, make decisions as a group, or share information. Anything else can be done via chat, text, or a phone call.
Let’s walk through a simple ways to shorten your meetings and get better outcomes. Or avoid meetings all together!
Overview
Conducting and attending meetings is a normal part of working in or on your business. What is not always expected is the excessive time some of them can take, the odd and interesting way some meetings are conducted, and the lack of results some meetings achieve.
I’ve used a simple approach to ensure meetings get results quickly, effectively, and with great buy in from all involved. Additionally, I have enjoyed getting rid of meetings that are best dealt with over chat, text or over the phone.
A planned meeting, kept to time, and with clear outcomes, is a pleasure to attend. Let’s dive into the way to achieve this!
A Real Life Example
I’ve experienced every combination of meetings you can imagine, and some! Those I recall with kind thoughts are those that are clearly planned, short, and achieve results. I am not a time waster, and prefer short meeting, but I do believe in quality! There is a balance!
One meeting I fondly remember was when I required an executive director to make an additionally $1.3 investment to roll out a $12 million dollar solution across over 400 locations! I only had access to the executive director for 20 minutes because they were delayed in their previous meeting (I rest my case). Already a tough ask!
However, two things enabled the YES decision to be achieved:
- The meeting was very well planned and had a clear decision-making process in the agenda
- We worked with all of the executive’s leaders and gained their endorsement for the decision prior to the meeting.
The meeting went very well. We walked through the (planned and rehearsed) agenda, provided everything the executive needed to make the YES decision. We achieve this with time to spare.
Creating Powerful Meetings
There are only two types of meetings:
- Decision-making meetings
- Information-only meetings
The agenda you create will either be for:
- A one-off meeting – therefore never used again
- Periodical meetings – where the agenda is reused for each meeting
Once you are clear on the type of meeting you are ready to plan. Once it is planned circulate the agenda to all participants ASAP – this can occur online in the calendar meeting or as an attachment to that meeting. It’s really up to you.
There are 4 elements successful meeting agendas have.
1. Meeting values / agreements / rules (I’m not a fan of the word rules)
Setting meeting values or agreements is one way to ensure meetings are conducted in a respectful, safe, and effective manner. If things ever do get a little out of hand, you can always refer to the values/agreements to reset the meeting.
Here are some suggestions you may wish to use:
– Start and finish on time
– Mobiles off or on silent
– Follow a set agenda
– Agree all actions items before the end of meeting
– One conversation at a time
– Respect all views equally
Creating these meeting values with your leaders or team has so many benefits.
2. Purpose, date, location, invitees
This most important item on your agenda is the PURPOSE of the meeting.
– Sets a clear expectation for the participants
– Helps you determine if a meeting is really necesary
– Helps you plan the meeting outline
Take your time with defining the purpose. The few minutes spent here will save you 10 fold during the meeting. Remember, your meeting is either to achieve a decision OR to share information. If the purpose is to achieve a decision, be very clear what the decision is. Once you are clear on the purpose, you will know who should attend and when to hold the meeting. Therefore, set the invitees, date, time and location of the meeting accordingly.
I will use this example to demonstrate throughout this article!
EXAMPLE: The purpose of this meeting is to gain a GO decision for the new approach to storing inventory
3. Creating the agenda (agenda Item, the approach you will use, and the time it will take)
Here is where I geek out on you!! These next steps may seem like overkill, but I assure you they are the make or break for awesome meetings!!
Planning your meeting is a critical success factor. Although, it may feel like a lot of effort, it’s not really! You can do it!! The small amount of time you put into planning will pay you back in so many ways!!
Think of it this way. There are steps that need to be taken in a meeting to achieve a decision or to effectively share information. We can all agree, meetings should not be a talk fest or an open discussion. Your good planning will enable your meeting participants to actively get involved and know exactly how to do this. Let’s set it up for them to play well.
Each steps in the agenda should produce a result. Starting with the purpose, think about the simple steps you need to execute to achieve this purpose. Do you need to share some information first? Do you need to ask for input? Do you need to identify some issues? Do you need to gain consensus for a decision? Every step should lead towards the meeting purpose.
Here are a couple of example agenda steps to demonstrate the approach using our example scenario: the purpose of this meeting is to gain a GO decision for the new approach to storing inventory.
Step 1 – walk through the new inventory storage approach, the result I want is to achieve a shared understanding. 15 mins.
Step 2 – determine any concerns about the new approach, the result is to uncover any issues or risks. 10 mins.
Step 3 – determine if any issues or risks will prevent the implementation, result is to gain consensus of any showstoppers. 5 mins
Step 4 – IF NO SHOWSTOPPER – Gain a go decision for the new approach, result is to gain buy in from all of the leaders to implement the new approach. 5 mins.
Step 5 – IF SHOWSTOPPERS IDENTIFIED – determine what actions are required to mitigate the risk or resolve the issue, 5 mins.
As you can see these 5 simple steps will result in a go/no go decision. The time allocated for these steps adds up to 35 minutes. Add 5 mins for intro and wrap up. Therefore, we would schedule this meeting for 40 minutes.
Once you send out the agenda, with these clear steps, the participants will know exactly what they are walking in to and how to play. I love giving my teams certainty!
I know what you are thinking, there is no way this could be done in 40 minutes. Well, there is one more step in the process that ensures it can be done in time.
4. Inputs for the meeting
This last section ensures everyone is prepared, the meeting inputs are available, and all prework is done before the meeting.
Using our example, we would document the following inputs for the meeting:
Input 1 – Presentation for the new inventory approach – leader to bring
Input 2 – Risk or Issues that may impact the implementation – all participants to bring.
Input 3 – Solutions to any risks or issues to enable implementation – all participants to bring.
As you can see, we are prepping ourselves and the participants to do the prework in readiness for the meeting. This alone will save you heaps of time.
In this example, you would send the presentation out with the agenda and ask that everyone bring with them any issues or risks they know of that may impact the implementation go decision, and any solutions to enable implementation.
– OVER TO YOU –
Overall, this planning approach will take 15 – 30 minutes. You will get faster with practice. This approach will save you and your team SO MUCH time, prevent meeting mayhem, and importantly get you the results you expect.
To recap…
- Up front build meeting values / agreements for all of your meetings with your team. This is a one-off action.
For each meeting: - Determine if your meeting is a information-only or a decision-making meeting
- Determine the purpose of the meeting.
- Determine who should be there, when it is to occur, and the location (online, in person etc)
- Determine the agenda – the steps you will take to achieve the purpose including how long this will take
- Determine the inputs to the meeting and who should bring them
- Send the agenda and any relevant inputs to the participants
In Closing
I am excited for you to apply this approach to meetings in your business and achieve the time savings and the improved meeting results! Give it a go even though it may feel like a bit of overkill. As i said, you will be amazed at how simple this is and the results you get.
You will find people will start accepting your meeting invites more regularly because they know your meetings are effective, short, and get results!
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