Clients often tell me that meetings take up way too much of their time and that often, they are unsure what the purpose of the meeting is and/or why their presence is required. They state that they don’t get any value out of the meeting(s) and don’t provide any value. Yikes. Here are 4 elements you need for effective and productive meetings that will energize your employees rather than frustrate them. Strong leadership is necessary for organizing and running meetings.
Research shows that 25 minutes is the most impactful length for a meeting. If you’re running your meetings properly with a narrowed focus, thought and intention, this should be very doable. There might be certain strategy sessions that make sense for an hour, but I wouldn’t suggest over 60 minutes. If you can’t get done what you need to get done in 25-60 min, figure out another way, narrow down the meeting objective, or strengthen the meeting facilitators.
I had recently joined an organization and had an extremely dysfunctional boss (I’ve never seen someone be so unrealistic). I received very little training (practically none in my 6 months there). Shortly after I started, my boss included me on a meeting invite with a new, prospective client, but provided no further information. I assumed this was a training tool – that he wanted me to be included as a chance to witness how prospect meetings go and to have a better understanding of our services and platform.
10 minutes before the meeting, my boss called me and was alluding to the fact that I would be running the meeting (me – with basically no training on their system, processes, services, no time to prepare). He didn’t even come right out and say “you’ll be running the meeting.” I had to ask him: “By the way you are talking, I’m getting the sense that you are expecting me to run this meeting.” He said “Yes – I want you to run the meeting.” I said “That makes me wildly uncomfortable and if you expected that of me, I would have appreciated a heads-up, training, and time to prepare. Having someone new and untrained on your highly specialized services & platform run a meeting with a potential new client without advance communication or training is not effective or engaging because you’re throwing them to the wolves with no lifeline.” 6 months later, he let me go and provided the following reason “I realized I don’t have capacity to train you.”
What is the intention / goal / objective of the meeting? What do you hope to accomplish? Examples: educating, brainstorming, sharing information. What outcome would make this a successful meeting (define success)?
Include the purpose and measure of success on the agenda and communicate it.
Determine how you will achieve the meeting’s objective. What’s the process to achieve the goal?
Include the meeting objective. Do you need or want people to submit questions or talking points in advance of the meeting? If so, request those with a deadline date and those will go on the agenda. Communicate the expectation that all attendees read the agenda in advance and show up prepared.
Participants: who needs to be present in the meeting and why? What role will they play? How will they give, or get value from their time in this meeting? Communicate if they are expected to contribute to the meeting and/or if they need to prepare anything in advance. Who doesn’t need to be present, but needs to be informed of what was discussed in the meeting? Communicate what your expectations are with them: “It’s not necessary that you attend the meeting, but you will be sent meeting minutes afterward and it’s expected that you read them.”
Identify & assign key roles & communicate them in advance: facilitator, co-facilitator, time-keeper, taker of meeting minutes
Meeting minutes should be posted on a shared drive or emailed to the appropriate previously identified people in a timely fashion (that day or within 24 hours).
Debrief if necessary: what went well, what didn’t go well? Should that feedback be logged anywhere or shared with anyone?
Schedule a follow-up meeting if necessary.
✔️ Start ON time (no matter who is there) and end on time or a few minutes early. Punctuality is crucial.
✔️ Preparedness: come prepared. Do not waste other people’s time to prepare yourself. Exhibit the behavior that you want to see from others.
✔️ Unplugged or at the very least set an expectation of presence and not working on other things.
✔️ If you did not cover everything in the scheduled timeframe, schedule another meeting.
✔️ Don’t schedule back-to-back meetings. Ever. Give yourself a chance to regroup, prepare, and debrief before/after meetings.
✔️ Communicate expectations in advance. Is it expected that people be on camera?
✔️ Determine if you want to start off or end meetings a certain way. For example, using the red/yellow/green light strategy at the beginning or ending meetings by asking participants to share their biggest takeaway.
✔️ Content: cover context, decisions, and action items/next steps with clear date expectations and assignments. You can also include accountability measures.
What else would you include for holding productive & effective meetings?
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