If there was a tool that could monetize the time wasted on useless meetings I assure you CEOs everywhere would go berserk and start punching people. The fact is the higher up the chain of command your resources are the more likely they will spend a lot of time in meetings, and the more their wasted hours will cost you.
The title for this post is worth emphasizing: Talking is not the goal of a meeting.
Meetings have specific goals. These are not always tangible or even measurable but very real nonetheless. Although there are several types of meetings with several purposes, they all usually fall under one or more of the following:
- Informative meetings: The goal is to communicate something. Examples of these are one-on-ones for communicating a promotion, status update meetings with clients, corporate gatherings to communicate news, sales pitches, etc.
- Decision making meetings: These are held to discuss certain topics and make decisions for later action. Examples of these are board meetings, management meetings, etc.
- Social meetings: After office parties, office-hour lunches, birthday celebrations, etc. Although one would be tempted to say that these meetings are just for talking, the goal is to build team spirit.
- Work meetings: Working together is better than pulling the cart alone. Working in the same room or getting together to tackle something with a team, could prove very useful.
You will probably find more categories or a different way or categorizing them. That’s fine; I wasn’t trying to set a standard.
As an example the goal for a sales pitch is to ultimately sell your product or service. The goal can be easily ascertained: At some point in time it’s either you’ve made the sale or not.
A meeting for team building has no measurable goal. Hopefully once it’s over you will notice some improvements, but it is never as tangible as the previous example.
The following is a brief list of common setbacks I’ve come across when participating in meetings:
Lack of proper facilities: You would not believe how many times I had to improvise because the meeting organizer forgot to book a conference room or a phone bridge. Also projectors, white boards, presentations, everything required to carry out the meeting should be prepared with anticipation.
Misunderstanding the goal of the meeting: If the purpose of the meeting is deciding budget cuts for next quarter and someone brings a beer keg and party hats things are bound to go to the crapper. At the very least, the meeting organizer should understand what the meeting is for and try to set a proper tone.
Lack of an agenda: Let’s leave social gatherings out of this one. For the rest of the meeting types a meeting roadmap, usually represented in the form of an agenda is a great aid. Even for one on ones, having some predefined structure can help direct the meeting. Agendas should not be improvised as a last minute thing. They should be prepared with anticipation.
Absence of a moderator: In every meeting someone has to moderate. Usually someone handles the timing, the agenda, the action item list, etc. The moderator could be appointed formally or tacitly. Often times when no moderator is appointed someone takes it upon himself to naturally lead the proceedings.
Compulsive talkers: I knew a manager that was so enamored of his voice that meeting durations invariably multiplied tenfold and nothing useful came out of them. He would go on and on for hours not even scratching the surface of the predefined topics. Everyone would leave the room a bit older and a lot dumber, wondering how he / she could make up for the lost time and what on earth was that all about.
Meeting output: Some meetings have a byproduct called the action item list. This is a set of tasks with a deadline and the person accountable for executing it. If decisions are made but there is no proper action item list as the output of the meeting, and moreover, this action item list is not periodically revised, then the meeting might as well not have existed in the first place.
Distracted participants: This one I never figured out how to solve, mainly because I’m part of the problem here. People will read e-mails, answer cell phone calls, chat, etc. Smart-phones and laptops are so common in everyday corporate life that having everyone focused on the meeting is almost impossible.
My favorite meetings are those in which everything is prepared with a reasonable degree of anticipation. They have an agenda, all the facilities necessary to carry it out, a moderator, an action item list as output and a minute of the meeting to set everything in stone. These meetings leave everyone with a sense of accomplishment. Sadly, most meetings I’ve been a part of, are nothing like that.
CEOs everywhere: Start punching and always remember what Dwight from The Office said: “The eyes are the groin of the head”
Shuje
On my next post I will show you very graphic evidence as to why banana hammocks should be banned. Until then please comment below or send me details of your bad meeting experiences to shuje@holoom.com
I emphasize the use of Agenda + whiteboard + markers. They’re a must !
In my experience, summing-up conclusions on whiteboard and exposing decisions taken to all participants (by mail, project management app, wiki, etc) guaranteed meeting effectiveness.
Shuje, grasping the essence of human souls as usual, great post.
Cheers!
More like GASPING at the essence of human souls.
Thanks Barry.
I agree again here with the Agenda. I remember my meetings in UK where people mostly high management gathered just to talk about the weather or pubs instead of making the meeting useful. There were people who spent around half day in meetings and when they came out you could ask them what did they do on that day with the common answer: “Nothing”.
Being a padowan created by Marina I learnt how to drive meetings so far. And this knowledge has been very useful by now.
D.
I believe in every meeting you should have a little bit of small talk before jumping to business. Weather and pubs fall into the small talk category. But if small talk is all the content of the meeting, then definitely something is wrong. Although pubs are a fine damn topic
Very good post dude. I think you approached a cross-industry worldwide problem.
My experience suggests that attendees are also the cornerstone of all meetings, from labor-related ones to after offices. The more people you invite, the less chances of producing an useful outcome. This gets worse if some of the attendees have no vote around the agenda.
Cheers.
True. The larger the list of attendees, the larger the control elements that need to be in place to ensure it goes on smoothly.