Let’s Meet in the Middle

How to make meetings matter

During a recent television interview, an employee of Warren Buffet commented that the famous investor never holds meetings with her. Instead, Buffet gives her annual goals and simply expects her to deliver. At the other extreme, at one point in my career I was logging 38 hours of meetings per week.
    Meetings can be useful, or complete wastes of time. Here are some things to consider when planning (or attending) meetings:
    Is it necessary? To be effective, any meeting must have a purpose, and that purpose should extend beyond simply sharing information. Kill as many unnecessary meetings as possible, and share information in other formats.
    Create an agenda. If the meeting is worth holding, take time to plan the meeting topics and key decisions. Share this with attendees in advance to keep everyone on the same page—literally.
    Who needs to be included? In some organizations, people feel left out if they are not invited. Identify who is essential to the purpose of the meeting, and let others know they can attend if they wish. Make the minutes available to everyone, too. Over time, fewer “extras” will feel the need to attend.
    Generate tough discussions. When making strategic decisions or policy, be certain that at least one person is convincingly arguing an alternate viewpoint. If everyone is nodding in agreement early on, perhaps there is insufficient attention being paid to the opposing side. Making decisions without opposition leaves any organization vulnerable.
    Who should lead the meeting? Hint: It is not always the apparent leader. Meetings are good training grounds, and rotating responsibility for standing meetings can develop skills, provide insights, and improve the experience for everyone attending.
    Consider where and how to hold the meeting. We do not need to gather everyone around the same table to hold effective, participatory meetings. Affordable phone or video conferencing can make better use of everyone’s time by connecting people wherever they are. Caution: Check with state laws about open meetings and electronic communications before trying this with board meetings!
    Be prepared. Agendas, documents, and decision questions should all arrive a few days in advance to allow participants to thoughtfully review them. It is poor leadership to hand out packets with statistics and instantly expect good discussion or decision-making.
    Pin the rose. To turn good ideas into effective actions, be certain to link each to the person responsible for its next step. Tie up those loose ends and provide clear deadlines for improved follow-through.
    Keep a record of key decisions, responsible parties, and points of discussion. Share these with attendees and interested others. These can serve another purpose as well: Review them at least semi-annually to identify ways to make the meetings more effective.

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WORKING WISDOM

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Try calculating the cost of your meetings by adding up the hourly salary cost of each person present, multiplied by the length of the meeting. Do your meetings deliver a value to the organization at least equal to the cost of holding the meeting?

(c) Copyright 2007 American Library Association