Of all the tasks we must do each day, meetings are among the most dreaded. We’ve all been there: watching the clock tick away while coworkers wax poetic about all the work they’ve been doing, falling to sleep with eyes open as they click through another PowerPoint presentation. The lights are dimmed, the projector hums, and the conversation dies. How many times have you left a meeting feeling that absolutely nothing had been accomplished?
When you sit down and calculate the dollar and opportunity cost spent on endless hours of meetings, you start to ask yourself: how can we make these things shorter, less frequent, and more efficient?
Here are a few tips from the experts at the Harvard Business Review (HBR):
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Set Objectives & Agenda: Create a clear objective and agenda for the meeting, making sure to exclude tasks that could be accomplished in 1-on-1 huddles or by emailing information.
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Prep: Assign pre-meeting “homework” so that each person arrives having brain-stormed or researched relevant topics before arriving.
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Cut the Guest List: Only invite participants who must play a key role at the meeting, and make sure they know what that role is ahead of time.
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Ditch the PowerPoint: In his HBR blog post, Peter Bregman proclaims the #1 killer of meetings are PowerPoints. Bregman points out that when we create PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentations, we present a thorough and satisfying picture. These kinds of presentations leave viewers to either tune out or to “poke holes.” Employees can review presentations on their own. Meetings should ferret out the questions, not pretend to have all the answers.
- Stand Up: Want to discourage your coworkers from wasting time chatting about weekend plans? Make everyone stand for the duration.
- Use a Stopwatch: Set aside time for each item in the agenda, with a couple extra minutes left for next steps and assignments.
- Shake it Up: Meetings are a great opportunity to get fresh perspectives. Try assigning a vexing issue to a leader from a totally different department and see what they come up with.
- Show them the Money: Calculate the average hourly cost to the company for meetings of 3, 5, 10+ employees and post it on the wall. Nonprofits are and should be especially aware of how they spend each dollar.
- Record and Recap: Assign someone as the “note taker”. Delegate tasks as you address each topic and recap assignments at each meeting’s close.
- Follow through: Assignments made in meetings tend to evaporate as people rush back to their desks. Send out a follow up email with meeting notes and assignments included and set a follow up reminder in Outlook.
What methods do you use to make meetings effective? Have you tried any of the above? What worked and what didn’t? Let us know in the comments!
Kathleen Denyer Hall
Software Trainer
Abila blog 