Let’s declare war on meetings---time wasting, poorly run, unnecessary
meetings that none of us feels should be required as part of our work
lives. Some of us have even left the world of corporate bureaucracy to
escape the endless schedule of meetings that seem longer than necessary
and accomplish less than intended. But meetings cannot and should not be
completely eliminated even in a small company, so let’s talk about how to
spend the time and effort wisely.
I attended a worldwide conference of nearly a thousand people brought
together to review and revise the policies and procedures of the
organization. A committee of a thousand can barely agree on anything and
each word and sentence got intensely debated. At the end of a ten-day
period, the participants were exhausted and hardly knew what they were
voting on next. They just wanted to get through and go home. Perhaps it
was a very democratic process because every delegate had a chance to be
heard, but the quality of the effort had noticeably deteriorated by the
end of the conference.
First of all, all meetings need to have a goal or objective. It sounds
elementary, but if you can’t think of a desired outcome of the meeting,
then why meet at all? There are plenty of good reasons to meet, including
communicating information, solving problems, learning a new skill, etc.
But if you cannot easily identify one or more of these reasons, don’t move
past this stage of planning. Writing down the goals will help to clarify
and evaluate them more critically.
Assuming you can pass the goals and objectives test, the next question
is who should attend. Invite only those persons who are directly affected
and/or have relevant information. How often have you sat in a meeting
wondering why you are there? It is interesting to note that productivity
of the group increases as new members are added but at some point, an
optimal level of effectiveness is reached. If we add participants beyond
this optimal point, productivity starts to decline. Fewer participants are
better, as the point of diminishing returns is reached quickly.
Once the goals are set and the participants determined, a few ground
rules are useful:
- Prepare a written agenda
. Even if there is only one item on the
agenda or the meeting is regularly scheduled, write it down and give
copies to the participants. You owe it to them.
- Arrive early
. See that the meeting room is clean and necessary
materials are available. Usually, something needs to be done to get a
meeting place ready.
- Start on time, end on time
. It’s not fair to those who arrive on
time to wait for those who don’t. Pace the meeting to keep the
commitment to the promised adjournment time. Participants have planned
other work around it.
- No interruptions
. Don’t allow outside interruptions or
participants to interrupt each other. If they are present, their
opinions are important.
- Be a good participant
. If you are a participant, you deserve a
well organized and a well run meeting. Don’t tolerate a poor meeting.
You are also expected to contribute to the success of the meeting.
- Be a good facilitator
. If you are the meeting facilitator, state
the goals and objectives, keep it on schedule, and involve everyone in
the process.
- Summarize and follow up
. Always review the results and develop a
follow up plan to insure that agreed upon action is taken.
Be particularly careful of establishing a standing committee that meets
regularly. Attending such meetings gets to be a habit, and habits are hard
to break. These meetings can become part of the company culture, and it
can be politically difficult to question such an established meeting. But
it takes some courage to fight the war on meetings, and don’t be afraid to
disband an obsolete practice.
One weapon in the fight against nonproductive meetings may be
mini-meetings. It may be possible to have several informal, short
meetings during the day and get more done than in scheduled and more
formal meetings.
Someone once said, "We must conquer war, or war will conquer us." I
feel the same way about meetings.
