Did you know that there is a ted talk on saving the world from bad meetings? Did you know that it has a little over 1.8m views as I write this article?
Do you know that there are 3.29m google results when you search for “productive meetings”? **Here are a couple of infographics (here and here) about how much unproductive meetings cost!
I am sure if you look at your calendar, you will most likely find meetings that you dread going to (yet you still go, don’t you?!). What if the meeting was optional? Would you still go? ;)
**(Check out Make Your Meetings Optional by Daniel Mezick)
Subtle Waste
If you want to get a glimpse of an organization’s culture, observe the way people conduct meetings. Organizations are always looking to find better ways of working however they can spark the change starting with the way they conduct meetings.
We can roughly calculate the cost of meetings. Here’s an idea I got from Jason: after each meeting, post a visible sign saying, this meeting cost $X and maybe a quick vote as people walk out the door on how productive it was. Be prepared to be surprised.
Remember, while we can roughly calculate the cost of meetings, it is hard to quantify opportunity cost from lack of engagement during meetings. This makes it even more important to pay attention to how we conduct meetings.
So, how could we make our meetings more productive?
Here are several simple questions to help you in preparing and facilitating your next productive meeting:
1. Does your meeting have a facilitator?
In my experience, there are two main keys to a productive meeting: Preparation and Facilitation. Finding someone to facilitate the meeting could mean the difference between a productive meeting and wasteful one! A good facilitator helps participants prepare for the meeting as well as reach their outcomes while encouraging participation from everyone. They can also ask the right questions to get things moving forward.
2. Do you have the right participants?
We have all been there, you show up to a meeting only to find that those who can provide input on what we need or make the decisions to move forward are absent. If that’s the case, you might have a bigger problem (too many meetings are happening and people are not available to attend the ones that matter.)
3. Do you have a process?
This is really your “meeting agenda” however I like using the word “process” instead since it means how will the meeting be facilitated. What is the goal of the meeting, what are the outcome(s) of the meeting and how will we get there?
I was introduced to the concept of running a meeting as a process by Ahmed Sidky and Marsha Acker several years ago and ever since I almost always run through a rough outline or “process” on how I will facilitate a meeting beforehand.
Yes, there are the impromptu ones but the concept still applies. In that case, I ask the participants about the goal of the meeting and what they would like to get out of it!
4. Do you have a working agreement?
You might think that people know how to interact during meetings but without clear rules on how to make our meeting a success, it will become less effective!
Daniel Mezick, author of The Culture Game describes good meetings as good games. A good game has 4 elements: Clear goal(s), Clear rules, Progress tracking and Opt-in participation.
Note: Some teams may have a defined working agreement (aka a social contract) that could apply to meeting so this working agreement could be defined before or during the meeting.
5. Have we identified next steps?
Most meetings end without defining clear “next steps”. Also, most importantly who owns those next steps and when we can check in on them. Part of next steps is to share with the meeting participants a summary of what took place during the meeting including (yep, you know it), next steps and who is working on them!
Notice all the questions are Yes-No questions. If the answer is Yes to questions 1–5, then the meeting will most likely be a productive one and the time spent will be worth the effort. Congratulations, you are prepared.
If on the other hand, the answer is No to any of the questions then the meeting is less likely be productive.
Now, imagine every meeting you walk into has taken these steps. How productive would your next meeting be?!
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