Have you ever walked into a meeting wondering why you’re there – or worse – left the meeting wondering the same thing? Perhaps you’ve left a business meeting saying to yourself that could have been an email? Or maybe you’ve sat through hours of circular talk or heated debate only to walk away with no clear understanding of decisions made or ideas of next steps to take.
GREAT meetings don’t happen by mistake. They happen when leader(s) think through the purpose, plan, and facilitation.
While many dread meetings for some of the reasons mentioned above – they can be incredibly powerful tools for driving business success. Meetings are not only opportunities to share information and solve problems, but they also keep the team working together toward a common goal, they build trust, improve communication and efficiency.
So, how do you develop GREAT meetings as a strategy to drive growth and performance? Here are 3 steps to use meetings effectively to drive success:
STEP I: Define your purpose.
As Stephen Covey advises start with the end in mind.
What is the purpose of the meeting? What do you hope to accomplish? Who needs to be involved?
A great place to start is by completing this statement: This meeting will be successful if……
Once you’ve completed that statement, you can create a meeting objective statement. The objective statement has 3 parts:
To do: What is the action / what are you going to do? Start with a verb.
Example: Conduct a quarterly business review
In a way that: How will you go about doing it? Map out the scope, people involved, success measures, tactics (this can be a loose bullet point).
Example: In a way that brings departmental leads together in person, highlights previous quarter’s accomplishments, identifies 3-5 company priorities complete with red-yellow-green performance metrics, and updates our annual plan to be current and forward-looking.
So that: Why are you doing this? Why is it important?
Example: So that we finish the quarter on goal and set ourselves up for a successful next quarter.
STEP II: Prepare.
When you bring people together for a meeting – whether an hour or several days – you are making an investment in time, energy, and money. Make sure it’s a sound investment by preparing!
Select a location – Meet in a space conducive to meeting your objective.
Choose a meeting coordinator – Put someone in charge of all meeting logistics and communications.
Prepare meeting material – Use your Objective Statement when creating your agenda. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the time you have available. If you are using a slide deck – remember less is more! Follow the 6 x 6 rule: 6 words long by 6 bullets. No more! (In today’s day, attention spans are short – so 5 x 5 or even 4 x 4 might be better).
Email agenda and pre-work in advance – Communicate a week in advance whenever possible – so that people have time to read/prepare. This will ensure you can utilize your meeting time together in the most effective way possible.
Meeting reminder – The day before the scheduled meeting, send a reminder to invitees and emphasize what it is you will accomplish together.
STEP III: Lead.
A great, productive meeting requires great meeting facilitation. And you can be that great facilitator! Here are a few tips that will help:
Have participants collectively set ground rules at the start of the meeting (be sure to suggest those important to you!).
Follow your agenda – but give yourself permission to deviate if a topic requires more time or attention. Healthy debate can be a good use of time. Just remember – if you do deviate – involve the team in deciding how you will make up that time (i.e., skip a break, extend the meeting by 15 minutes, schedule a follow-up meeting, etc.)
Celebrate progress as you move through the agenda. Highlight learnings, acknowledge someone brave enough to bring up a difficult subject, check in to ensure everyone remains engaged.
Encourage full and equal participation. This may require you to call on those who have not spoken up and ask if they have something they’d like to contribute (remember – some team members are more dominant than others – your role is to ensure equal playing time whenever and wherever you can).
Use visual aids effectively. Visuals are helpful – but don’t overdo it. Flip charts, whiteboards, PowerPoint, sticky notes – they can all be helpful visual tools – just keep them simple and clear. And remember, people have different learning styles – some are visual, some are auditory, some kinesthetic – so mix it up a bit (but use all aids in moderation).
Keep your energy positive. Enthusiasm is contagious….and so is negativity. It’s typical that the energy in the room will be a notch or two below the facilitators, so be sure your level is where you want it.
Get to consensus. This doesn’t mean everyone will agree on everything – but it does mean getting to an acceptable resolution that can be supported by everyone. A good way to get to consensus is to ensure that all ideas are evaluated, and everyone’s perspectives are heard.
Meeting outcomes/minutes. Document the who-what-when. End each critical discussion by documenting next step actions that include who is accountable, what they will do and when it will be completed. Get in the habit of summarizing your meeting at the end by reviewing the who-what-when’s and begin follow-up meetings with confirmation on completion of the who-what-when actions assigned.
Finish strong. Remember Maya Angelou’s famous quote “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” You want people to leave your meeting feeling good. Finish by recapping decisions made, reviewing actions, confirming next steps, acknowledging the work, and thanking everyone for actively participating in getting to those outcomes.
When you are intentional with your meetings – when you know your purpose, you prepare, and you effectively facilitate – you’ll see greater engagement, happier team members, and better results. It won’t happen overnight – but it will happen!
If you want help determining the best meeting strategy for your business – or want to learn how to leverage skills to maximize meetings for your business - Hera Associates is here to help.
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