PLEASED TO MEET YOU
WORKPLACE MEETINGS have the potential to be worthless: as uninspiring as they are unproductive. These are events at which minutes are kept and hours lost. Conversely, such get-togethers can host a capacity for unleashing brilliant brainstorming sessions, packaged with efficiency and effectiveness. What makes some meetings terrific, while others are a waste of space?
Much involves leadership. Even more is down to planning. The better prepared, the richer the results that can be expected, from the agenda through to post-meeting feedback.
The mission is to ensure that every working session interchanges, informs and inspires. You are seeking to achieve meetings of minds as well as bodies.
Think about what needs to be discussed, over and above what could be accomplished by email or telephone. Have a clearly credible purpose for your meeting. You will be asking your team to commit time and energy.
Nobody wants to attend without a purpose. Just as unwelcome are meetings that lurch all over the place, from topic to topic. Be crystal clear about what you want to achieve.
IN ADVANCE
An agenda, showing where the meeting should be heading and why it has been called, distributed in advance, gives participants the opportunity to think ahead, then play a full part.
They are more likely to be engaged in all that will be going on when they have been pre-warned, always presuming that you have invited the right people. Attendees make or break meetings.
You might consider giving participants tasks to carry out ahead of the event. Reading material, perhaps, or data about which they will have to think and respond.
Set up the assembly room in plenty of time. Deal with the logistics, including the provision of an area for everyone to temporarily store their devices, ensuring attention without distraction.
Start on time, manage by the clock, then end on time. Unless all those present are close colleagues, ask them to introduce themselves. People should explain why they are attending and what role they expect to play. Set the ground rules and re-state the objectives.
YOUR MEETING
It is your meeting, so lead the process and keep it moving in a positive direction. Are you going to be a participant in the discussions, or stick to being the facilitator? Whichever, make it clear to your peers at the outset.
Then, encourage people to talk. Control the verbose. Forbid interruptions, but don’t tolerate side tracking. Maintain the focus. Meetings can veer off course and be lost.
You will have to keep on top of all the ideas – display screens, flipcharts and chalkboards can be invaluable. Notes need to be concise and reflect what has been said, not what some might have wanted to hear. An effective meeting should leave you energised and feeling that you’ve really accomplished what you wanted.
Towards the end, link the discussion back to the initially-stated aims. Soon after the meeting, summarise the outcome, list the expectations and distribute to those who took part, plus anyone else you consider relevant.
Be sure to ask for feedback. What was good and what went wrong? Samuel Goldwyn said: “I want everyone to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs.”
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