Secrets of Productive Meetings

Meetings have long been — and continue to be — the Bermuda Triangle of business. In 2004, Patrick Lencioni offered his advice to make meetings more productive in his bestselling book, Death by Meeting. Most managers are allergic to meeting syndrome at their respective workplaces but cannot avoid them. They somehow consider these to be a sheer waste of time, energy and resources, both human and material.

Needless to say, that meetings consume a large amount of our working lives, but how much do they actually achieve? Not as much as they could, suggests research by Korn Ferry. In fact, more than 34% of professionals surveyed by the organizational consultancy in 2019 said that they waste between two and five hours per week on calls or meetings that don’t accomplish anything. Furthermore, over two-thirds (67%) said that spending too much time in meetings and on calls distracted them from making an impact at work.

If organisations are to become more effective, it’s clear they need to get better at holding productive meetings. So, what can leaders and managers do to make this happen? Here are a few pointers for your consideration:

1. Front Stage vs. Back Stage

“While many meetings are relatively routine, some involve deliberation with a view to arriving at decisions,” says Dr. Shameen Prashantham, professor of international business and strategy at China Europe International Business School and author of Gorillas Can Dance.

He argues that decisions taken at a meeting are more likely to be “suitably nuanced and actionable when the actors involved have had a chance, beforehand, to rehearse arguments, gauge and get buy-in from others, and consider the necessary follow-up actions ahead of time”.

2. Circulate Reading Material in advance

Some readers may argue that when exaclty the meeting reading materials to be shared? As a good rule of thumb, one should always aim to share materials at least 7 to 15 days before the meeting. This goes for both in-person and long-distance participants. This allows attendees plenty of notice to carve out some time where they can focus on thoroughly reviewing the read ahead materials.

“Don’t spend meeting time presenting reports,” says Annelise Ly, associate professor at the Norwegian School of Economics, a member of the CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education. “Ask your collaborators to read them in advance and, when meeting, move straight to the discussion. It engages participants and reduces meeting length.”

3. Focus on outputs, not updates

“Sandra Porter, author of How to be an HR Superstarand managing director of HR consultancy The HR Dept. “Meetings should be key opportunities to collaborate, problem-solve and innovate.”

Porter believes that if leaders calculate the cost of having their colleagues together for the duration of the meeting, the meeting needs to create at least twice as much value. “Next time you are chairing a meeting, think about outputs, not updates,” she advises. “Make the meeting as output-focused as possible so that everyone comes to the table with their thinking hat on, not thinking about what to have for dinner.”

4. Moderate Meeting Discussions

“Robust debate and disagreement in meetings is a vital attribute for driving innovation, thereby ensuring that teams can flourish and succeed,” says David Liddle, CEO of transformational culture consultancy TCM Group and author of Transformational Culture. But he warns that it’s all too easy for spirited discussion to become damaging and dysfunctional.

Managers can’t afford to sit back and let debate degenerate. Instead, argues Liddle: “They need to take on the role of facilitator, creating safe spaces where open, honest dialogue can take place and where diversity of thought is embraced and encouraged.” Healthy debate, says Liddle, is about “helping our people to disagree well”.

5. Follow Up Tasks

This is a critically important area where most meeting secretaries don’t do a good job or literally fail. Following up, especially at the senior level isn’t an easy task but its highly significant part of the meeting’s success. This helps remind everyone of what was discussed and what needs to happen. It essentially serves as a reminder and informs everyone who was absent what the meeting entailed. Consider these follow-up points:

1. Share meeting minutes in 48 to 72 hours max;
2. Check on the progress of each action item within 15 days max if the next meeting is scheduled in 30 days;
3. Schedule individual meetings. After the meeting, schedule individual meetings with project leaders or other employees in charge of the action items you established during the meeting. This allows you to speak with them directly about these action items and gives you an opportunity to check in on their progress;
4. Schedule the next meeting.

Bottomline

In a nutshell, most people hate meetings. Instead, they prefer to consult and make decisions in trusted and in closed group environment so that they don’t face unnecessary challenges, arguments and resistance. In the name of “saving time”, that they prefer to implement their own decisions made together with their favourites quickly and move faster. This is one of the best examples of “autocratic leadership”.Leaders This category of managers reacts to the meetings as same as they would when they hear “Let’s go for a dental root canal.”

To sum it up, regardless whether we work for a business concern as a manager, supervisor, team lead or as an employee, or we work in a voluntary capacity at an established charity organisation, conducting a meeting gives us the opportunity to share ideas and information, collaborate and contribute with our coworkers and address important issues and goals. I hope that the above pointers would help knowing how to properly conduct a meeting that in turn, will help the organization to function efficiently.

About the Author

Muhammad Sajwani is a C-Level HR, Transformation Leader, Board Advisor, Business Coach & Organisational Consultant working in the capacity of Managing Director, Evolve HR. He is an author, columnist and a contributor who besides writing for other platforms also regularly writes at BizCatalyst 360. He brings along 30+ years of local & international experience. He is a change catalyst specializing in unleashing the human Dreamgenius through Leadership, Creativity and Change Management. Muhammad has been instrumental in helping organizations come to terms with organizational changes like right-sizing and business process re-engineering. His innovative approach & high personal competence encourages people to not only accept change, but also to excel in it. Muhammad has diverse experience in conducting strategic & management development programs, conferences & events for organizations across sectors.