I just read this article on BNet: http://www.bnet.com/2403-13059_23-61211.html
I absolutely *loved* the first line: “Have you ever sat though a pointless meeting and calculated just how much money was being wasted as a dozen well-paid professionals zoned out around a deathly boring conference table?”
Absolutely brilliant and absolutely true. Of course I have sat in a meeting, wondering when it would end, wondering how much it was costing, and hoping that the facilitator would finally squash it.
But the facilitator doesn’t often squash the meeting. They don’t usually shorten them either. Rather, they just let them run because they think it is necessary. The leaders in an organization often think the same thing. However, if you could present the weekly cost of the meeting to the leader’s attention, perhaps that would change.
Money Timer can help you do that. Purchase now on the iPhone.
A previous co-worker of mine, Gilles Fabre, pointed out that while this was an interesting application, one that would also take into account how much a meeting was saving the company would be more interesting. His point is that meetings are held in order to solve problems:
it’d be nice to take into account the benefits from the meeting, because a meeting is also supposed to help solve problems or help make decisions that’ll make the company save or earn money
I absolutely agree with his assessment, and would love the ability to determine how much a meeting is worth, in the intangible sense. But that’s the point: meetings are very difficult to assess: how much are they saving the company? This is near impossible because information is transferred, groups solve problems, and points are made, all which is essential in running a company. These are intangible assets that cannot be easily quantified. If I could do that in a software application, then I’d move on to world peace! But Gilles has a very good point: meetings are absolutely critical, and oftentimes save more money than they cost!
Here are some helpful tips on the use of meetings in your organization.
1. Cancel ineffective meetings
First of all, take a good look at all of the existing meetings in your organization. In some medium sized organizations, there can be as many as 20 meetings a week, each with at least 10 people in each. That’s a whole lot of man hours, and a lot of company time and money.
However, not all meetings are bad. In fact, meetings are a cost of doing business, and should constantly be reviewed, just like you constantly review your business plan and projections.
- Make every meeting count. Analyze these meetings every month, discussing effectiveness with meeting participants.
- Is this a one way meeting? If so, wouldn’t it be better to communicate one on one, or through email?
- Who are the attendees? Don’t just invite everybody, but make sure your invites are focused. This is very similar to marketing: rather than making a broad blast with your marketing materials, focus your blast on a specific area. Only invite people who have specific knowledge for the group, or are decision makers.
- Rah Rah? If this is just a meeting meant for whipping up enthusiasm, then cancel it. Motivation is never a one meeting fix, but a constant effort.
2. Meetings need purpose
All meetings need an agenda: purpose, timeline and attendee list. All meeting attendees need to know the objectives in advance, so they know what they’ll get out of the meeting, and what to expect. Surprises are rarely seen as good things in meetings: don’t surprise your attendees.
Agenda
- Write a complete agenda. Try to keep surprises to a minimum, and let everybody know what to expect in the meeting. If you have last minute updates to the agenda, send a new one as soon as possible. Keeping surprises away from your team is not always possible; just keep them to a minimum.
- Send the agenda out in advance. You do this for three key reasons:
- Expectations. You let people know what to expect, and to get them excited to attend the meeting. It is important to get people to want to attend the meeting and not feel forced into it.
- Preparation. Giving people the information you want to cover in advance, gives them the ability to do the research necessary in order to fully participate.
- Invitation. Sending the agenda in advance lets the attendees determine if they are the right person from their group to attend the meeting. It also gives them the ability to opt-out if they have nothing useful to provide.
Timeline
We often think about the meeting in hour increments: it’s either a one hour meeting or a two hour meeting. At Palm, all ouf meetings were scheduled to be one hour. Our belief was that was the case merely due to the fact that our software defaulted to setting the duration as one hour. What ever the reason, don’t schedule a one hour meeting unless you absolutely need to. If you find that your one hour meeting only lasts 20 minutes, then adjourn early. People hate sitting into meetings that last longer than the set time; they love leaving meetings early, however.
Attendee List
Bear in mind that your attendee list should be flexible. Invite the core team members, of course, but be flexible. If one of the team members believes that his or her employee would be best to represent them for a specific topic, then allow it. Additionally, part of the reason you send your agenda out in advance is because you want the right people to be in the room. If that means others need to invite that person, then so be it.
3. Meetings need a leader
In order to have an effective meeting it needs an effective leader. This leader needs to drive the meeting: ensure it starts on time, gets the message communicated, the problems solved, decisions made, and more. As a leader, it is critical that you value the time of your attendees: start the meeting on time. When you let the meeting start late, end late, etc., you’re making a non-verbal statement: the meeting is more important than the individual. This is bad.
As the leader, you need to ensure that you have someone to handle the leading of the meeting each week (for those days you cannot attend), that you have a time keeper (that keeps you on track), and someone to take notes. The note taker happens to be one of the most important roles in my opinion, as notes are critical for those unable to attend, and as a way to track the actionables. Having led many a meeting in my day, I have found it near impossible to keep the meeting on track, lead the meeting and take notes.
4. Meetings need involvement
Meetings are not about you telling the team what to do. It is not about the vocal few setting the tone, this is about everybody having their say on specific issues. As the meeeting leader, it is your responsiblity to ensure that your attendees feel empowered to say their mind, and to help them have their say. When I ran a weekly team meeting at Palm, I was burned because one of the attendees never spoke his mind, and constantly badmouthed the meeting to his co-workers on his team. At the time I wondered why this was my responsiblity. After all, if he was too shy to make his voice heard, why was that my fault? Well, the short message is this: placate your attendees when possible. The damage inflicted by this person not having his voice heard was bad, and did not do the team, nor my reputation, any good.
