“Productivity is never an accident; it is always the result of commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer
Having endured some painfully boring meetings and tedious presentations in my career, I wanted to share some lessons from some of the very best leaders and presenters I have met.
Preparation
What is the purpose of the meeting, do not simply have a meeting because you always have a meeting at a certain time on a certain day? You need to have a purpose, otherwise do not waste everyone’s time.
Decide on what outcome you would like to achieve and plan your meeting accordingly; this will tie your plans to your purpose. This will not stifle your meeting but it will help you to work towards accomplishing your purpose for having the meeting.
Do you want interaction or no interaction from your participants? Is this a “telling style” meeting or an “information gathering” type meeting or an “open forum” meeting with lots of exchanging of ideas? By deciding what type of meeting, you want will fundamentally change how your people approach the meeting and what they will take away from the meeting. Let your associates know ahead of time what style you are planning.
Have an agenda, it can be detailed or just a few words. The overall success of your meeting will depend on how successful you are at keeping the everything “on track”. The agenda incorporates the purpose and works towards your desired outcome. Beware of over-loading your agenda; trying to cover too many points can overwhelm the participants and result in your meeting not being as effective as it would have been if you just focused on a few key points.
Send the agenda and schedule the meeting at least 48 hours in advance. If someone else is going to make a presentation in the meeting, try to give them as much preparation times as possible.
For on-line meetings, post the meeting link when you announce the meeting.
Decide who should attend your meeting. If your meeting is a “general update meeting” then everyone should be there. If the meeting is more specific, for example a marketing meeting, then not everyone needs to be invited. Many people are “meeting outed” and if given the choice certain people might be grateful to opt out. It is important not to accidentally “slight” someone by not including them in a meeting without an explanation.
Be prepared technically prior to the meeting. Rehearse all of the technical details prior to your meeting. There are few things as frustrating as waiting for 10 minutes while someone tries to figure out how to share a screen on a zoom call.
Recurring Meetings – Begin your meeting by briefly reviewing the “take-away” points from the previous meeting. Too many recurring meetings seem like “stand-alone” meetings and important topics seem like they are discussed once and then never again.
Considerations
Pay attention, give the person speaking your undivided attention. Bringing other work into a meeting is incredibly rude and distracting.
Keep your cell phone off and avoid the temptation to “catch up” on your texting.
If you are participating in an “on-line” meeting and you have to do something else, turn off your video feed until you are finished. In addition, ensure that only the speaker has their microphone on during the meeting.
Do not engage in side conversations while someone is speaking. This is usually only an issue for in-person meetings. For on-line meetings use the “chat” feature if you need to speak to someone other than the presenter; however, ensure you have specified who gets to read the “chat.”
Listen thoughtfully, try not to interrupt until the presenter is finished speaking, and then ask your questions.
Don’t be boring; make your meetings interesting. You can do this by asking questions and having other people present during the meeting. Interactive meetings tend to be more interesting and engage the participants better.
Be prepared to deal with inappropriate behavior. Sometimes meetings can create quite passionate discussions. Recognize the warning signs and be ready to deescalate situations before things unravel. I have had people screaming at one another during meetings and not only does it kill morale, but the purpose of the meeting can be lost in the bickering.
Try to keep comments and suggestions to the points on the agenda. If someone really wants to discuss a tangent, suggest putting that topic onto the agenda for the next meeting. Try to avoid having the meeting hijacked by a surprise topic.
Execution
Keep on your agenda and monitor time and the discussions. As the meeting facilitator, you may have to limit conversations to keep the meeting focused.
Use every meeting to inspire and motivate. If you have negative things to discuss, cover them early in the meeting and try to spend the rest of the time building on positive and uplifting conversation. Never criticize individuals or the group publicly if possible, use the old adage, “Criticize in private, praise in public.”
Ensure that everyone participates and all questions are addressed.
Stay within the time parameters, if the meeting is scheduled for 1 hour, and then keep it to 1 hour as much as possible, even if it means finishing having to finish the agenda items in the next meeting.
If someone is scheduled to present in the meeting, ensure that they get the opportunity near the beginning or middle of the meeting, especially if you sense the guest speaker is nervous.
As the last point of the meeting, take 5 minutes and review the important discussion points and any remind those who have been given assignments to complete.
Follow-up
Have someone take minutes; it should not be you; your job is to run the meeting and be monitoring the participants for reactions and comprehension. You cannot manage the meeting if you are taking the minutes. Send the minutes to everyone with 24 hours of the meeting, especially to people who were absent.
In the minutes, remind participants of any work that they need to have completed in time for the next meeting.
Schedule the date and time of any follow up meetings.
After the meeting, ask for feedback and comments. Feedback is important to keep your meetings relevant and useful. Consider the comments and suggestions as you plan future meeting and adjust accordingly.
Good luck,