Meetings are often considered the curse of the business world; however, they are a vital tool. The reason they have such poor press is that most people haven’t a clue how to run one! Good meetings, like good food don’t happen by accident, they take careful planning and a lot of work that is unseen by most people attending them. Good meetings, like cooking, are a mixture of Art & Science.

“A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted.” James T Kirk

The work falls into three phases:

Before:

Firstly you have to clearly decide why you are having the meeting? What outcome do you need? When is it required by?

Who needs to attend?

What preparation do they need to do? What should they bring with them?

Where is the appropriate venue? Onsite or off-site? What facilities and ambiance will help the meeting to be successful?

How long do you need and what is you back-up plan if you need a little more time?

A key to a successful meeting is having a process. This is more than an agenda (although you need one of those too!) A process tells you how you will move through the agenda, what tools and techniques you will use; tools such as brain-storming, voting, and many others. I ought to mention here that brain-storming is far more than just chucking out random ideas. There are multiple ways of doing it¹ and it really is quite an art in itself.

You need to decide how you will reach decisions. Do you need to reach a consensus? Must it be unanimous? Will the boss just listen then decide? What kind of voting will you use?

What props and equipment do you need? How do you feel about Powerpoint slides; helpful or do they kill it stone dead?

Do you have a set of ground-rules of the behaviours that help and those which get in the way?

It is important to decide the roles of the various attendees. If you are calling the meeting, you are probably going to chair it. However, there is a whole raft of skills involved in doing this well and they don’t come naturally and require learning and developing. As the chair of the meeting you need to carefully listen to what everyone is saying and this makes it hard to also keep an eye on the process. If the meeting is important, then it is very helpful to have a trained facilitator. It is the facilitator’s job to ensure that the meeting stays on track, that you use the right tools and methods, to keep an eye on the energy levels and participation. If required, it is their job to press the ‘pause button’ and see if you need to either shelve a point, or go ‘off agenda’ and explore it. He is the conductor of the orchestra, and the chair is more like the customer. There also needs to be someone responsible for recording the decisions and action points.

“Meetings without an agenda are like a restaurant without a menu”. Susan B. Wilson

During:

Everyone should arrive before the meeting is scheduled to start, not at the start time. It is important to start and wherever possible, to end on time. If there is a case for over-running, then this should be negotiated, not assumed or happen by accident.

The chair should frame the meeting by reminding everyone why they are there and what is required. Any strangers should be introduced.

The bodily comforts should have been attended to and there should be lots of water there. Lighting, heating and acoustics need to be right.

The facilitator needs to ensure that there is full participation and that quieter ones are not being drowned out by the more garrulous ones. That people don’t say “Yes” when their body language suggests “No”. That the ground-rules are observed (things like no mobile phones! Only one person talking. No reading email in the meeting).

Roughly the meeting will split into two phases, an opening out exploring phase, and a closing down decision making one. The meeting may have a series of these phases.

If the energy levels are flagging, then take a short break but restart on time!

As the meeting draws to a close, the chair must make sure that he has the result that he needs. That people are clear what decisions have been made, what actions will be taken and by whom. If a follow-up meeting is required that should be booked now.

It is often helpful to go round all the attendees and ask them how they felt the meeting worked and what, if anything should be changed next time.

After:

The meeting notes need to be got our within 24hours of the meeting whilst everyone can still remember what was agreed. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. The facilitator and the chair should have a post-meeting debrief.

Every group has its own norms and culture, its own humour and repertoire of tools & techniques, but also every meeting has its own dynamics and it is truly an art to make them work on a consistent basis.

I hope this little guide will help you have more effective meetings in the future.

“Many people attempt to save time by not planning. This false short cut guarantees that everyone will spend more time later.”

Resources:

1. Brainstorming techniques