Welcome to the Momentum Business Coaching Newsletter for
May 2008

Managing Your Meetings

Meetings, like death and taxes, are an inevitable fact of business life. Many, unfortunately, turn out to be a huge waste of time. Some companies schedule them so automatically that staff members' energy is completely zapped, replaced by apathy and boredom.

Meetings are used counterproductively in organizations as a device for diluting authority, diffusing responsibility and delaying decisions. Referring a matter to committee may satisfy those who are cautious and analytical, but it's a source of frustration for action-oriented risk takers.

Human beings are a social species, and meetings fulfill a deep need. In every organization and culture, people come together in small groups at regular intervals. Attachment to the organization increases when they participate in teams and meetings. This need for gathering is clearly something more positive than just a legacy from our primitive hunting ancestry.

So, what can you do to ensure your meetings are productive and useful-not just socially satisfying?

Functions of Meetings

1. A meeting defines the team, group or work unit. Members gain a sense of identity and belonging when they gather.

2. In a meeting, group members share knowledge, add to each other's experiences, and combine strengths to produce better collective ideas and plans.

3. A meeting reconfirms members' commitment to decisions and objectives. Your membership in a group obliges you to accept its decisions, even if you personally disagree.

4. In some organizations, a meeting is often an occasion for team members and the team leader to demonstrate their strengths and talents when working collaboratively.

5. A meeting is also a status arena. Not only can members show their cooperation, but they can also use a meeting to demonstrate their power and influence. A meeting is often the only time when members have a chance to determine their relative standing in the arena.

Avoid Meeting Failure

Meetings go off track and fail to achieve their desired objectives for many reasons: difficult interpersonal dynamics, office politics, power struggles, stonewalling and competitive drives that override the collective good.

Unless you are very clear about what you want to achieve in a meeting, you run the risk of wasting everyone's time. There are four types of objectives for meetings:

1. A meeting can be informative. If it is purely factual, consider other means of disseminating the information.
2. It can be constructive and creative.
3. It can involve defining responsibilities, collaboration and commitments.
4. It can be legislative, establishing frameworks for rules, routines and procedures.

Preparing for Meetings

A well-prepared agenda helps clarify expectations and highlights purpose and objectives. It has the power to speed up a meeting-unless, of course, it's too brief or vague.

Before you call a meeting, delineate whether it's "for information," "for discussion" or "for decision" so everyone understands the goal.

The following tips will help you with agenda planning:

• The early part of a meeting tends to have more energy and can be the most creative. Put items requiring more mental energy and ideas at the top of the agenda.

• Some items will unite committee members, while others may divide them into factions with conflicting opinions. It's often smart to end on an item that will be unifying.

• Dwelling too long on trivial items is a common error. Deal with the more urgent long-term issues at the beginning of a meeting.

• Limit the meeting's length, and state the stop time on the agenda. Start and end on time. If you schedule your meeting right before lunch or quitting time, people may be more motivated to stick to the agenda.

• Whenever possible, circulate background information on key issues beforehand. This helps ensure people are well informed. Keep these papers brief, or people won't read them.

• Identify all agenda items before the meeting. If you allow individuals to add "other business," you've essentially issued an invitation to waste time. You can, however, structure time for discussion before the close of the meeting.

The Leader's Job

Some people believe their role as meeting leader gives them a license to dominate, while others approach the job as "schoolteacher" or "scout master." The former is intent on getting others to do what they determine to be best; the latter is focused on group satisfaction, without appropriate emphasis on action or results.

The meeting chair should be more servant than master, with two simultaneous requirements for success: dealing with subjects and dealing with people.

Dealing with Subjects

Leaders must listen carefully to keep meetings pointed toward the objective. From the start, they must make it clear what the meeting must accomplish before everyone leaves. It's the leader's job to ensure members stick to the topics, have the required information and understand the issues. Be on the lookout for points on which an interim summary will help.

Leaders should know when to close a discussion and move on. Perhaps a topic cannot be resolved because more facts are required, other people need to be present, more time is needed or individual members can settle things outside the meeting. But a decision's difficulty, likelihood of being disputed or chances of being unpopular is no reason to postpone making it.

Finally, the leader must give a clear, brief summary, reiterating action steps and members' specific commitments.

Dealing with People

There will always be people who dominate meetings, while others will be passive and silent. Encourage a clash of ideas, but not a clash of personalities.

Reframe complaints into challenges or problems to be solved. When discussion veers into whining, suggest a solution and ask others for new ideas. Use humor appropriately. Always keep the discussion moving toward its objectives.

Above all, don't allow energy to fizzle. There are plenty of opportunities to wake people up with questions and challenges. Don't waste people's time in meetings that go nowhere, where everybody is in agreement. Stir things up a bit. You can't achieve meeting objectives without engaging members' full participation.

Resource:

Jay, A. 1976. "How to Run a Meeting." Harvard Business Review on Effective Communication. Harvard Business School Press. Boston MA.