Follow These Steps for Productive Meetings

Meetings are invaluable for enhancing staff communication, yet without proper planning, they can degenerate into lengthy, unproductive sources of cynicism.

Paula Jacobs, The Jacobs Group, Framingham, MA -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2000

Several years ago, a friend gave me a poster that was making the rounds of a large corporation known for its tedious meetings. Entitled “Meetings: The Practical Alternative to Work,” this poster reads, “Are you lonely??? Don’t like working on your own? Hate making decisions? Then call a meeting!!!”

If you have ever sat in a meeting wondering why you were there and whether it would ever end, you are not alone. As the tongue-in-cheek poster highlights, lengthy and unproductive meetings remain a key employee complaint.

Yet, meetings provide a useful way to solicit team input, gain consensus, review project status, brainstorm new ideas, and plan for the future. You can make the most of your time spent in meetings by following these 10 tips:

1) Set Your Agenda
The key to an effective meeting is a well-planned and organized agenda. Think carefully about what you want to cover, your objectives, and how much time you plan to allot to each item. If the agenda calls for presentations by team members, request in advance their input about agenda topics and required time.

Whether it’s a strategic planning meeting or a weekly project status review, craft this agenda as carefully as you would an important memorandum. Be as specific as possible: Include a bulleted list of agenda topics as well as the name of the presenter and the time allotted to each topic. If there’s any material participants must bring to the meeting, such as status reports, state so clearly on the agenda.

Make sure to distribute the agenda in advance, at the same time you send out the meeting notice to participants. By doing so, you will set expectations up front and ensure your meeting stays on track.

Finally, redistribute this agenda at the beginning of your meeting. Explain any last-minute changes and remind participants that the meeting will be limited to agenda items.

2) Define the Topics
How many topics should you cover? Don’t plan to solve all the world’s problems in a single meeting. Nor should you expect participants to focus on too many issues at a single sitting. Instead, plan on only a few key topics. This approach lets you cover issues in depth, helps the meeting stay on track, and gives participants a sense of accomplishment when the meeting is complete.

3) Set Your Objectives
As soon as you call the meeting to order, state clearly the objectives (as defined in the agenda): to review project schedules, determine beta test sites, or define staffing requirements. By defining the objectives at the outset, you will set expectations and provide a framework to keep the meeting on track. Also, right before you adjourn, remember to restate the objectives and summarize how the meeting achieved these goals.

4) Use Time Effectively
A major complaint about meetings is that “they are a waste of time.” Because everyone’s time is valuable, there are several ways to use time wisely and keep the meeting flowing. After you have reviewed the agenda and objectives, explain that you have a full agenda and limited time; therefore, you want to review quickly the ground rules up front—for instance, when the meeting will end, the approximate time devoted to each topic, and floor time per participant. This approach provides guidelines for participants, shows that you respect their time, and helps control problem participants who bring their own agenda to the meeting or monopolize discussions.

If it is necessary to review documents for action during the meeting, make sure to distribute them in advance. Don’t take up valuable meeting time by expecting participants to read material during the meeting. Similarly, if you plan to distribute handouts to be read after the meeting, hand them out at the end to avoid distraction.

5) Respect Time
Show your respect for time at the outset. If the meeting is called for 10:00 a.m., call the meeting to order at exactly 10:00 a.m., not at 10:04. Similarly, if the meeting is to end at noon, end the meeting precisely at 12:00 p.m., not at 12:05. While a few minutes may not seem significant, your job as meeting chair is to lead by example and demonstrate your own respect for time; this action will also encourage stragglers to arrive on time in the future.

6) Encourage Participation
One of the greatest challenges during a meeting is to encourage active yet appropriate participation. How do you get the input of someone who has valuable information to impart but who is shy or bored and prefers to daydream or play solitaire on a notebook PC? For small groups, you can conduct a “round robin”—go around the table and ask everyone to express his or her views on the subject within an allotted time. An alternative is to ask members to generate their views in writing; then, ask an inactive participant to write these ideas on the board prior to group discussion.

7) Manage Members
How do you effectively deal with problem members who can destroy even the best planned meeting? What do you do about participants who dominate the discussion, wander from the topic, or argue with other participants? To handle the person who is an expert on everything and tries to dominate the discussion, you should politely but firmly thank him for his input but state, “Let’s give other people a chance to express their opinions,” or “The allotted time is up.”

Also deal firmly with the participant who wanders from the topic at hand, complains, and gets the meeting off track; thank him for his contribution and move on by saying something like, “Yes, that’s true but we can’t solve all the company’s problems today, and we have some very specific issues that we must address.” Be prepared to firmly cut off discussion with the person who wants to be the center of attention and often argues simply for argument sake.

8) Use Visuals Wisely
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but use audio-visual tools judiciously. If the five-minute product video relates directly to the agenda, show it (provided you have set up the equipment). But think twice if you are just looking for a captive audience for a 30-minute corporate video.

9) Define Action Items
As you cover each topic on the agenda, make sure you define action items, related deadlines, and individual roles and responsibilities. For example, if it is necessary to set up beta test sites, define clear responsibilities and deadlines.

10) Close
When an effective meeting comes to closure, you will have covered the agenda, achieved your objectives, and defined action items. But don’t leave anything to chance. At the end of the meeting, make sure to quickly summarize what you have achieved as a group. Set a date for the next meeting, request agenda items for the next meeting, and always thank everyone for contributing to the success of the meeting.

FOR FURTHER READING
www.mmm.com/meetingnetwork

Paula Jacobs is director of The Jacobs Group, a business communications firm in Framingham, MA. E-mail: pjacobs@world.std.com.