New research shows that 11 million meetings happen every day in the United States. On average, we spend 28% of our work time in meetings. (See more on this data here.) For many of us, it’s significantly more than that — this week, I’ll spend over 50% of my hours in meetings; next week, it’s even more.
The topics of these many meetings are often in our professional wheelhouses: we know how to discuss sales strategies, share revenue numbers or plot a change effort.
What we don’t know is how to run a meeting.
This lack of training shows in the complaints that are all too familiar:
This meeting could have been an email.
The discussion devolved, and we never got past the first item on the agenda.
What agenda?
Was anyone taking notes? We’re going to need another meeting to remember what we decided in the last one.
This was a waste of my time.
About a year ago, my colleagues and I began sharing our best meeting facilitation tips with participants in the leadership development programs we facilitate. At first, we worried these ideas were too basic — but we’ve watched senior leaders, with “chief” in their titles, scribble notes as we walk through these principles.
We’ve also watched early career and emerging leaders breathe a sigh of relief as we share these ideas. “Finally,” they seem to be saying, “someone is naming what we need to make our meetings more productive.”
The need for meeting hygiene
Ensuring that your teams are as productive, efficient and meaningful as possible requires strong meeting hygiene.
I use the word ‘hygiene’ intentionally. Good hygiene is a daily practice — we don’t brush our teeth once and then assume we’re done for the year. We must be consistent in our efforts. At the same time, once those efforts become routine, they don’t require much of our mental bandwidth to make them happen. The habit is formed.
Meeting hygiene operates in the same way. We must follow the essential meeting hygiene practices daily to see results. But once we build the habit, little mental effort is required. The processes happen naturally, with minimal perceived effort.
7 tips for getting the most out of your meetings
There are seven essential practices for running a meaningful meeting.
#1: Clarify the purpose of the meeting: update, discuss and align, decide
First, you must know why you’re meeting. Are you there to update team members? Discuss possibilities and align on next steps, or make a decision?
In longer meetings, such as a bi-weekly team meeting, the purpose may shift from segment to segment. But the intent should always be clear. When the intent isn’t clear, info updates turn into debates.
The following chart can help you determine the meeting type and avoid some of the common pitfalls of each.
Meeting Type
Best When You Need To …
Don’t Forget
Common Pitfalls
Update
Inform people quickly
Be concise, use visuals
Could have been an email
Discussion & align
Gather perspectives, explore ideas, collaborate
Facilitate and frame the conversation
Drifting and devolving
Decision
Choose between options
Share context & criteria up front
Lack of preparation, no decision process and avoiding decisions
#2: Default to fewer, shorter meetings
Meetings are necessary — they are often the most efficient way to ensure everyone is informed, ideas are carefully evaluated, and decisions are shared and executed. But meetings shouldn’t take up so much time that we have no space for executing the work.
To minimize meetings, default to shorter, fewer time blocks.
Consider 10-minute daily huddles instead of longer meetings (or a slew of emails).
Schedule meetings for 25, 50 or 75 minutes rather than 30, 60 or 90. This allows time for bio breaks and (importantly) information sharing with those who were not in the meeting.
Evaluate the right frequency — could that weekly meeting be bi-weekly? Could the monthly meeting be quarterly?
Honor the time you have reserved. Show up on time and end on time.
Review your recurring meetings quarterly: Do you still need them? Can they be shorter or less frequent?
#3: Have a clear agenda, shared in advance
A coaching client recently complained that she never knew what to say in meetings. As we explored her concern, the challenge became clear: the agenda wasn’t shared in advance, so she didn’t have time to gather her thoughts. This client requested that her colleagues share topics in advance, and they did. The very next meeting, she felt better prepared and able to speak up.
This is why we want clear agendas: to give people time to prepare so they can bring their best ideas rather than needing to respond “off the cuff.”
Clear agendas also offer an opportunity to consider priorities: what really requires the group’s consideration, and what could be an email?
#4: Limit attendees and improve info sharing before and after the meeting
In many organizations, being in a meeting is a status symbol. But this status comes at a cost: team productivity. When possible, let one individual represent the team or department, and then improve pre- and post-meeting communication so that the representative shows up prepared to advocate as needed, and can also share updates from the meeting afterward.
In general, if you’re not leading, representing or learning in a meeting, you should be leaving it.
#5: Have a clear closing
Never end a meeting without reviewing who should do what by when. These five questions will help your team close well:
Let’s review our decisions.
Who is responsible for each next step?
When is it due?
What needs to happen before we meet again?
How should we prepare for our next meeting?
Make sure communicating decisions and updates is part of your “what needs to happen” plan.
#6: Make it safe to speak up
Meetings, especially discussion and decision meetings, are only effective if people feel free to share concerns, raise ideas and ask questions. If the energy of your meetings is falling flat, the problem may be a lack of psychological safety.
Running a red session, where someone plays devil’s advocate, can help others feel free to speak up. (Find other tips here.)
One thing participants should always feel free to speak up about — the meeting itself. Give the team permission: “If this meeting ever feels like a waste of time, let me know.”
#7: Be a model team member
Finally, as the meeting leader, you must model exceptional team behaviors.
Know that if you don’t come prepared, no one else will.
If one person starts multi-tasking, everyone will start multi-tasking.
Be aware of power dynamics and tone. What the person with the most power says carries disproportionate weight in the room. Be mindful of the adage, “A cat is a lion to a mouse,” and model thoughtful dialogue.
Audit your meeting management
If almost a third of your time is going to be spent in meetings, get the most out of those minutes as you can. These best practices work. I’ve seen team productivity be transformed as the habits became part of the way the team functions.
Take time to assess your regular meetings today.
For the meetings you lead, take action ASAP. Share this article with the other meeting participants and invite feedback in your next meeting. Together, create a “stop, start, continue” list for the meeting, and put it into practice immediately.
For the meetings you don’t lead, consider the single change that would most impact the meeting’s productivity and functioning. Politely suggest the idea to the meeting leader, and volunteer to help implement the new approach.
If you do this for every regular meeting on your schedule, your meeting hygiene will improve, and over time, the new approaches will require little effort to sustain.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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