“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.”
– Dave Barry, American Author
If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting thinking to yourself, “That’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back.”, you’re not alone. Research from Steven Rogelberg at UNC Charlotte has shown that 50% of meetings are ineffective, and that number increases when we look at remote meetings. Talk about time wasters!
Before we discuss best practices, remember there is a difference between efficient and effective. Your meeting may only be 20 minutes (efficient) but if there are no decisions made, next steps identified, or tasks assigned, it may not be effective.
Adopt these habits to create and conduct more efficient and productive meetings.
Purpose – Before you schedule anything, know the purpose of your meeting. What’s the goal? Can you articulate specific and anticipated outcomes for the meeting? If not, consider waiting to schedule it, or send an email instead.
Create an Agenda (and Circulate It!) – Craft your agenda around your meeting purpose. This is your meeting GPS. Invest the time to think about:
- Advance notice on the agenda gives people the opportunity to prepare for the meeting, or opt-out if they’re not the right person to attend.
- If the meeting veers off course, refocusing on the agenda can get everyone back on track and ensure you achieve the stated outcomes.
- Make note of any sidebar topics that arise and follow up separately.
Attendees – Meetings are one place where “The more the merrier!” does not always apply. Too many people, or the wrong people in the meeting, only serve to create confusion, delay decisions, and waste time. Based on your purpose and your agenda, who needs to be in the meeting to help you achieve your outcomes? Others may need to be apprised of discussions or decisions, but they may not need to attend (and they’ll silently thank you for not including them.)
Start and End on Time – This may sound obvious but how many meetings have you scrambled to get to on time only to be told “We’re just going to wait a few more minutes until more people show up.” Delaying the start time is disrespectful to those who made a point to be there on time.
Similarly, end the meeting at the designated time. Everyone is back-to-back. If your meeting runs over, it creates a domino effect for other meetings, as well as more stress for attendees (this is where the agenda again comes in handy!) Starting and ending your meetings on time creates “certainty” for people, which can alleviate a threat response in the brain (thereby reducing stress!)
Be Inclusive – Have you ever been to a meeting where one person holds court, and no one can get a word in edgewise? If yes, you know that meetings will be more productive, and people will be more engaged if they have a voice.
Integrate practices that allow everyone to add their two cents. Remember that extroverts will have a lot to say without any prompting. Introverts often need time to digest information and form opinions, and you may need to draw them out.
Finally, if one person is on Teams, consider having everyone on Teams to create a level playing field. There’s nothing like being the only one on video to create disengagement.
Create Clear Roles and Responsibilities – You can greatly increase the effectiveness of your meeting by explicitly stating what’s expected in terms of participation. Is this a brainstorm where everyone can contribute? Are you sharing ideas for people to weigh in on? Have you made decisions that you want people to be aware of? Do you expect to share ideas and have others execute? Letting people know this at the start of the meeting eliminates confusion and can increase engagement.
Clearly Define Next Steps and Accountability – You’ve invested the time and energy (yours and others’) to bring people together, don’t let it go to waste by not ensuring that someone has responsibility for the action items that came up in the meeting. Make sure everyone is clear about what needs to get done, by whom, and by when.
Capture Notes and Circulate Them – Documenting what’s been discussed and decided in the meeting creates a record of what’s transpired. This is helpful for anyone who may have missed the meeting, and provides a reference if something doesn’t go to plan, there’s confusion about who owns which piece of a project, etc.
And you don’t need to be the notetaker. Ask for a volunteer or make it a rotating assignment for standing meetings.
Finally, a meeting hack from Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack: If you want to find out which of your regular meetings are mission-critical or fluff, cancel all of them and see what happens.
And here are a few resources you may enjoy for holding better meetings.
6 Tips to Run an Effective Meeting, Backed by Science
