Meetings: efficient or a waste of time?

Do you ever wonder how work ever gets done because people always seem to be meeting and not actually doing the work? Make an estimate of what each person is worth per hour then do the sums (allow for travel to and from the meeting). What does a meeting actually cost?

For meetings to be managed productively there are several details that must be addressed:

1. Reason for the meeting and right people attending. Agendas, distributed prior to the meeting, make for a more effective meeting. With no agenda at the very least be ultra clear about the reason for the meeting, who should be there, who doesn’t need to be there and can be told later and what the intended outcome is. Meeting facilitators need to stick to agendas.

2. Duration of a meeting should be clear. We are not bad at setting start times but what about how long the meeting should go for? And how good are you or your meeting chair at keeping to a timeline?

3. Minutes are helpful. Taking minutes during a meeting ensures there is a record of what has been agreed and provides a list of outcomes and actions of who will do what by when. Even an informal meeting – how about an email at the end of it to summarise key points and actions?

4. Good facilitation skills. People who chair meetings need a variety of skills to ensure their meetings run effectively:

• Inviting comment and hearing all points of view.
• Controlling the discussion and managing competing views.
• Resolving conflict and managing disruptions.
• Clarifying, summarising and explaining.
• Managing time and moving effectively through agenda items.
• Managing decision-making and voting to ensure agreement.

Meeting FAQs I get asked:

If someone returns to a completed agenda item with a useful new direction/point to make, how should this be managed effectively?
Acknowledge and deal with fast this new point, if valuable. Otherwise, stick to the current topic and schedule for end agenda items, end of meeting or next meeting.

When people are late to a meeting what is the best may to manage them?
Greet and offer a 10 second summary of where you are at. Don’t reprimand, make back-handed comments or ignore. If the person’s lateness is a performance management issue – deal with it at a different time, by giving specific feedback.

How can meetings be improved?
Ask for suggestions form the team. Identify improvements that can be made to the way meetings are run in your team and suggest how they can be implemented, and try them. Have a focus on improved meetings.

What is the best way to manage new items that arise during a meeting – especially when you are short of time?
Add them to the agenda and ideally allow for time for extra items. Be efficient during the meeting to try and gain time for anything extra to be dealt with. Make decisions rather than delay decisions.

What should you do if people are divided in their opinion and you need to conclude the meeting with an action plan and an outcome?
Take a vote. Or agree on a sub-group to make the final decision on behalf of the group. Or agree on what information is needed to make the final decision and implement a process for after the meeting (email/vote) to ensure the decision is made rather than drag it out to another meeting.

Whose responsibility is it to create an agenda and how/when should it be circulated?
The meeting chair or someone allocated to the task. This task could be rotated in a team.

How/when should they be circulated? Who should approve them and when?
I hate it when minutes take weeks to appear after a meeting. They should come out as fast as possible and be approved by the chair, and circulated by email. Next meeting they can be amended if someone has an issue with them.

How do you engage people who seem to be bored during a meeting?
Ask them questions. Make the meeting more energised. Talk to them later about why they were bored. Ask good questions – be open to something you may uncover about the way you run a meeting.

Here is something to take away and think about. What annoys you most about meetings in your workplace and what could be improved? Okay, now what are you going to do about it?

Eve Ash speaks regularly at events about how to best manage meetings and how to motivate people to enjoy their work. Eve is the producer of the best selling DVDs ‘Meetings Under Control, Managing Meetings’ and her latest release ‘Meeting Case Study’, featuring Mark Mitchell (www.7dimensions.com.au).