Improve meeting effectiveness

Communications Manager Terrence has had a lot to say about all the conferences he has attended. When asked about his role, he said, mockingly, "I'm a professional attendee." Terrence's problem was that the meetings he attended were mostly inefficient, unfocused, and time consuming. To make matters worse, the meetings that actually get the business done are not well managed to make sure the right people are in place.

Terrence's problems are not uncommon. "The biggest complaint I've heard is that meetings are ineffective, time consuming and unnecessary," says Frances A. Micale, who works in consulting and training. She is "No More Meetings! Author of the book A Practical Guide to Building Effective Meetings.

A bad meeting is not only a lost opportunity, but a waste of time. Time is limited, and if you convert the time employees spend in meetings into time to get work done, the amount of money a business wastes is staggering.

The website EffectiveMeetings.com offers a meeting cost calculator that can help you determine the cost of a meeting based on a set of variables. For example, assuming a management team of 5 members with an average annual salary of $70,000 and the meeting lasting about 2 hours, it would cost $390 to convene once a week, or over $20,000 per year. Add to this the cost of endless meetings, mountains of information, and ever-longer to-do lists that add to the stress and dissatisfaction of employees.

Consultant Peggy Klaus said, "Managers sometimes feel like they have to listen to everyone to make a decision. But it's so time-consuming and ridiculous."

Here are some practical tips for how meetings can promote rather than hinder your organization's success:

Don't hold meetings too often

The simple solution to ineffective meetings may be to simply not hold them. Before calling in, managers should ask themselves if there are other ways to achieve the goals of the meeting. If your focus is on sharing information, emails, memos, and informal conversations may work better.

Barbara Streibel is a consultant and author of The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings. She believes, "The best reason to have a meeting is when you really need interaction between people. You need people to share opinions and knowledge and build a common thread on what's at hand." Only when you need everyone to be there so that Such meetings are only necessary when information is to be exchanged immediately. Otherwise, email or voicemail will suffice.

"The cure for 'meeting mania' sometimes requires a change in how you think about management," says Krause. While a democratic workplace is better, that's not to say that all small everyday issues require collective decision-making. Micromanagers who want to scrutinize individual reports in detail will need more meetings. On the other hand, effectively delegating work to qualified subordinates will greatly ease the need for meetings. "With the right delegation, I don't have to be there for every decision the team makes. I know Zhang San or Li Si has already taken care of it," Krause said.

Don't Stop at "Discussion"

"Discussion" is no longer enough. Productive meetings rely on clearly defined goals, which are the direction people are working towards and the yardstick by which progress is measured. "If I were to organize a meeting, I would like to be more than 'discuss'," says Stribel. "It might be 'discuss and decide,' or 'discuss and plan,' or 'discuss and identify key barriers to success.' '. I want action, not a logbook of what happened last week."

For example, if your weekly meeting with your subordinates has already generated a lot of grumbling, make sure everyone (including yourself) Reports are reduced to actionable matters.

Prepare well before the meeting

If the company had better prepared and communicated for the meeting, Terrence in the above example would not have missed the meeting he really cared about, and his participation would have Make meetings more effective. If the president's executive assistant had thought through and prepared a good agenda for the weekly senior staff meeting, she might have figured that Terrence's presence would be required to make informed decisions about the proposed community communications. (He just happens to have cost data and findings that drive people to make the opposite decision.)

Even if she forgets to invite Terrence, as long as she routinely distributes the agenda to all managers in advance, Terrence will know what to expect. what happened. That way, he can nominate himself for the meeting, or at least send an email to his boss with important information.

As a rule of thumb, Strebel recommends spending 30-60 minutes preparing for the meeting you are responsible for organizing or leading. Distribute an accurate agenda and call the right people. When the meeting involves matters unrelated to certain participants, allow them to leave.

Meticulous advance work can lead to surprising and popular decisions. "Identify the desired outcome in advance and prepare an agenda, and you may find that you don't need a meeting," says Mikael.

"Mooring" Digression Ideas

Effectively conducting meetings is a topic in itself, but experts offer a few simple concepts that will keep meetings as short and productive as possible.

A useful and ingenious way to quickly get a meeting back on track without hurting feelings is to put off-topic thoughts into a "parking lot," suggests experts like Krause. A "parking lot" can be a whiteboard with ideas and ideas that could be discussed (or not) at a more appropriate time.

Teachers and chatters can also undermine the success of a meeting, even if they stick to the agenda. Not only do they consume time, but they also deprive attendees who may have the best ideas, but are not as articulate as they are, from a chance to speak. It is necessary for the moderator of the meeting to interrupt them politely to shorten the lengthy personal monologue. Add a prompt to the taciturn to give their opinion, and you can keep everyone engaged.

Strebel also pointed out that in some meetings, it seems like everyone needs to do a 5-10 minute "opener". If this becomes the norm in meetings, get people out of the habit. "If you let it go and there are 10 people in the meeting, you're letting at least 1 hour go to waste."

Declaring a no-meeting day

Some companies have declared a no-meeting day. Others let certain times of the day be uninterrupted by meetings. In some enterprises, the use of "standing" is used to combat the procrastination and spread of the meeting. The participants complete the brief agenda in threes and fives. They really stand all the time, reminding each other that the meeting should not be leisurely. That's what really effective meetings are.

Stribel's advice: Be stingy with meetings and use them well. "People often feel that meetings are a waste of time," she said. "But when the meeting is done, everyone can be creative together, and they can synthesize everyone's perspective, knowledge and experience. This way, they can come up with innovative solutions and updates to problems. A better way to do things. Who wouldn't want that?"

Excerpted with permission from In Search of the Perfect Meeting, HBS Working Knowledge, September 2003 and copyrighted.

Translated by Lian Qingsong.

Tom Krattenmaker is a freelance writer and director of news and information at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia.