Death by meeting – nothing destroys morale quite like pointless, ineffective, and unproductive meetings. Meeting productivity means focusing on a narrow and actionable agenda with well-defined discussion points with set time limits to minimize wiggle room. These new-style meetings relegate most of the societal fluff to defined relaxation sessions and tea breaks, allowing the attendees to focus on what is really important at that moment.
Effective and productive meetings have irrevocably changed in the 21st century. Leaders who embrace the internet and social network age need to adapt their meeting styles to reflect this brave new world where effectiveness, and not “hours on the job”, is respected. Lean management principles reward companies that minimize the meeting expense and opportunity cost of poorly led meetings.
Here are 12 secrets for productive meetings!
- Time is not the real issue
- Plan meetings only when needed
- Limit the number of attendees
- Run the meeting like clockwork
- Make meetings shorter
- Eliminate all distractions
- Timer set
- Select the meeting setting carefully
- Meet standing up or somewhere else
- Listen to music that boosts productivity
- More about Productivity At Work
- Create a smartphone free zone
- Encourage meeting skills training
- Outline the outcomes and plan for the next meeting
- Plan the agenda in advance
- Take away action points
- Bonus section:
- Meeting Productivity by Numbers
- What are the unseen costs of a meeting?
- Start increasing your meeting productivity today
Time is not the real issue
Time is rarely the real issue in most things. The real issues are energy and engagement. Manage these and you will be successful in any task that you pursue. A survey across multiple companies has shown that most employees feel that they have too much to do and too little time to do it in, thus adding yet another meeting to their schedule simply feels like death by management, essentially robbing them of their two most precious commodities – time and energy. Who wants to slave 10 hours at work, commute for another 2 only to be too exhausted to spend quality time with their loved ones? A great life is not usually achieved by living to work but by working to live. True masters manage to work at their hobby, thus never feeling that one part of their life is sacrificed for another…
To minimize the resentment towards meetings, it is best to manage the participants’ energy levels when planning a meeting. Longer meetings should allow for breaks to maximize productivity levels while making allowances for the “always-on” aspects of modern life – an extra 30 minutes break to catch up on urgent emails may well be rewarded by an extra focus during the decision-making stages of a meeting….
Even though virtual meetings have a lower toll on employees, they need their own considerations with scheduling as critical as for in-person meetings.
Plan meetings only when needed
Why are you meeting today? Is it a tradition or habit, or simply expected of you?
Too often, meetings are busy-work.
On paper, meetings are great! They give the team a goal to work towards. Management can use meetings as a milestone to review progress and fine-tune the project, address roadblocks, and redistributed scarce resources.
In practice, meetings tend to be the easiest calendar item to set up. Simply pick an arbitrary date or frequency for a meeting and suddenly dozens of tasks appear, all critical to making the meeting a success – catering, traveling, gathering information, preparing presentations, practicing speeches – we all can tell when a meeting was a rush-job after all.
Such meetings are a waste of time for most employees, who would prefer to get on with their work routine, especially when insufficient new developments have occurred since the last meeting. Most of these meetings could be just as easily replaced by a brief one-on-one with the line manager to report on why no progress was made or by recording the presentations and making them available to employees. Sure, it is great to learn that the company has a new mascot, but do we need a meeting to introduce the mascot? Why not simply have him or her do a walk-through?
Effective meetings fulfill an urgent and present need in the company – decisions need to be made, a sudden opportunity or market-change needs to be evaluated, an action point needs to be reviewed or finalized or things just need to get done. By having a single, clear purpose that feels immediate and actionable to the team, employees will feel that the meeting did not waste valuable time and will increase the organization’s meeting productivity.
In a production environment, daily 15 minute meetings to hand over between shifts is more than enough. Businesses with a lot of moving parts benefit from a 20-minute meeting once a week, just to go over the tick-boxes while organizations that are more stagnant in their developments, for example, consultancy firms, can get away with quarterly or even bi-annual meetings may be sufficient.
Limit the number of attendees
“Alexander, if this meeting bores you, you do not need to work at this company”MY MANAGING DIRECTOR, IN 2005
He was right in his statement but wrong in his decision. Shortly thereafter we stopped holding those particular meetings. The reason for my boredom? I was the sole person in my business unit and my product group had virtually nothing in common with the rest of the company – different products, different markets, different sales techniques, different sales cycles, etc. How did it benefit me to attend “their meeting” and learn about who they would approach the following month and where their sales were? It was not that I was bored, it was simply that after 2 years of hearing the same customer names, the same objections, the same strategies, and not being able to contribute my viewpoint due to being too junior, the meeting had no purpose for me. The worst part for the company though was that my boredom would irritate my colleagues, essentially demotivating them. Since splitting up the meeting into 2 sessions, our sales numbers tripled, and team cohesion skyrocketed…
Who should attend the meeting?
Meeting attendees should have a reason to be there, they need to be directly involved and need to have something to say on the topic. Too many people at a meeting means that either the majority will be silent – frustrated and time-wasting, or the meeting will run too long. Each attendee should be there for a particular reason – expertise, stakeholder, regulatory, authority, etc. If they do not have a reason to be there, then they should be excused and provided with a memo after the meeting.
Limiting attendees to a meeting is also highly beneficial to your bottom line. Every attendee has a salary, which can be broken down into an hourly rate. Adding these rates up for each meeting shows you the hourly cost of such a meeting on the organization, often yielding a shockingly high number when compared to the value yielded by that meeting.
Do they need to attend the entire meeting?
Some meetings will require additional expertise to present information and help guide the decision. However, these attendees are not required for the final decision-making. For example, a technical expert may provide a presentation on the key aspects of a project but would not have a vote in the final outcome. To maximize their value to the company, allowing them to leave shortly after having fulfilled their role is a great idea. The tactful handling of these delegates makes them feel so valued that their time should not be wasted.
Run the meeting like clockwork
Make meetings shorter
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completionCYRIL NORTHCOTE PARKINSON – “PARKINSON’S LAW”
20 minutes – While many jokes have been made of the modern attention span being shorter than a goldfish’ we still seem to be able to focus on a task for about 20 minutes… if we are engaged and entertained.
The ideal meeting time is 10 to 15 minutes, per session. Schedule an hour and of course, the meeting could not possibly take less than an hour… If necessary, use a timer to keep the meeting to the allotted time, reward the team for completing the meeting ahead of schedule…
A shorter meeting also forces the agenda to be clear, concise, and focused, kept clear of clutter and filler. And most importantly, if you have achieved the goal of the meeting, simply wrap it up, ensure the delegates are clear on the next steps and let everyone leave early.
Eliminate all distractions
Distractions are the bane of every meeting and the human mind is an escape artist… Distractions tax the mind through temptation and valuable energy is lost between the competing desires of performing one’s job and the distraction. Banning smartphones from a meeting, removing snacks, or simply reducing the outside view can improve the energy in a meeting.
Some meetings though benefit tremendously from carefully crafted distractions. These meetings are often associated with creative processes where the distraction might allow the subconscious to make a breakthrough. In such circumstances, the number of distractions and tempo need to be carefully choreographed to allow for bursts of focus to generate the required results.
Timer set
Setting a timer serves two purposes:
- People feel slightly more stressed when timed and try their utmost to keep to the allotted time.
- When a discussion diverges too much from the original goal, the organizer can simply remind everyone of the clock and instantly the conversation gets back on track.
The timer is not to contain a meeting and if an agenda item needs more time, then certainly give it the attention it deserves and interrogate why more time was needed at a later stage – were the timeframes too ambitious, was the agenda poorly developed, or was the topic simply not understood well enough?
Select the meeting setting carefully
Meetings
Meet standing up or somewhere else
Listen to music that boosts productivity
More about Productivity At Work
Create a smartphone free zone
Smartphones are both a boon and a curse. In the modern, connected world, the greatest gift you can give a person or an activity is your full, undivided attention. By allowing smartphones into a meeting, you are allowing the focus to drift, points that should have been clear get missed, requiring a restating of the relevant information. This wastes everyone’s time and increases the opportunity for misunderstanding. After all, if person A makes a point and person B fails to grasp it, is it a bad point or unclear communication? Most people will try to cover the same information differently and if this fails, abandon the chain of reasoning as incorrect. However, what if person B simply was elsewhere mentally? If a third person is involved, this person can then feel that their time is being wasted on a trivial matter and they then disconnect from the meeting as well…
While the 21st century is all about people being connected, these connections need to be real and need to occur at the right moment. Despite popular belief, we cannot truly multitask, but rather allocate tiny slivers of our attention to various tasks consecutively, giving the impression of multitasking.
Encourage meeting skills training
Outline the outcomes and plan for the next meeting
Plan the agenda in advance
Can Implementing Patience Help in Having Productive Meetings?
Implementing patience is essential in having productive meetings. By learning how to harness patience, participants can listen attentively, avoid interrupting, and take the time to understand different perspectives. This creates a more open and collaborative atmosphere, leading to more effective communication and decision-making.
What Are Some Additional Tips for Holding Productive Meetings?
When it comes to “how to hold meetings
,” additional tips for productive meetings include setting a clear agenda, sending out pre-meeting materials, keeping the discussion focused, assigning action items, and following up after the meeting. It’s also important to limit distractions and encourage active participation from all attendees.
Take away action points
– Are the Secrets to Productive Meetings applicable for both leaders and managers?
Yes, the secrets to productive meetings are applicable for both leaders and managers. In the leader vs manager comparison, both roles require effective communication, clear objectives, and efficient time management. Whether you are a leader or a manager, implementing these strategies can lead to more successful and productive meetings.
Bonus section:
Meeting Productivity by Numbers
What are the unseen costs of a meeting?
Start increasing your meeting productivity today
Inefficient meetings are more than just a boring experience for your employees – they can also result in massive expenses for your organization. Opportunity costs that result from unproductive meetings arise through salaries and office-related costs, and indirect costs include loss of employee work time, and lower employee satisfaction, which in turn leads to higher employee turnover. Meetings today are almost exclusively virtual, meaning many employees and leaders alike are navigating a way of attending and holding meetings that may be unfamiliar and daunting, which can make productivity even more challenging. 2