Keeping Get-Togethers Productive
November 2003
Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite place to be on a sunny fall day: a meeting. Ah, I can hear your groan from here. Why is it that so many meetings seem to take four times as long as necessary and get very little done? From my perspective, it’s because lots of us don’t know how to run a meeting.
First and foremost, don’t have a meeting without a reason. This seems obvious, but sometimes is not. Some folks seem to think that a meeting replaces action. Meetings should be either to communicate information or to plan action, or both. Be clear what your purpose is.
Which brings us to the ubiquitous agenda. Do you need one? Yes. Even if it’s one you scribbled on a napkin at lunch. Would you try to drive to Ritzville without a map? Probably not. How detailed does the agenda need to be? Please yourself, but don’t take all day on it. I’ve seen people come in with meeting agendas that looked like the outline for a Master’s thesis. Save your energy for the content of the meeting, but make sure that main items are listed.
Give some thought to how you organize items. Don’t talk about cutting back operating costs and then announce your upcoming business conference to Hawaii. If the conference is critical to getting business, then do explain why it is you are going. Perhaps the reservation was made in better times and the cancellation fee is too great. Think about how you say things, and what the subtext is going to sound like.
Imagine two scenarios: in one, you talk about all the conferences, training and equipment purchases that were planned when times were grand, and ask for ideas on how to reduce overall costs so folks can still go to a conference that may benefit everyone with new knowledge or working methods.
In another, you announce that office supplies are now in a locked cabinet, and you are leaving on Tuesday for an all-expenses-paid week on the Big Island. What kind of buzzing do you think there’s going to be as soon as you are out of the door? And what kind of productivity do you expect to happen while you are gone? You can also be darned sure that while you are lapping up the sunshine, your staff will be sorely tempted to carry off supplies by the case!
Keep meetings short and to the point. Try to restrain folks from wandering. Some common (and not so common techniques) for keeping meetings short:
Have the meeting standing up. (I’m not kidding. This will be a short meeting.)
Have a “talking stick” of some sort. If you’ve got folks who never shut up, have one item that you must be holding to talk. Organizational development folks sometimes use a ball of yarn. The “web” that is left shows patterns, and can sometimes shame those who dominate conversationally. It also shows who isn’t talking, and groups frequently want their wisest ones talking a little more. Most groups have a member who is relatively quiet, but has a lot of knowledge and good sense. We want to hear more from those folks. If they are not inclined to talk, you may want to ask them directly for their opinion or input.
Weekly staff meetings are a hybrid – I will argue their necessity, to communicate routinely with your workgroup. It’s a rare good manager or supervisor who doesn’t have regular staff meetings. I’ll never forget asking an employee of a group that my staff had been having trouble getting information from, which day their staff meeting was. He looked at me blankly. “We don’t have them,” he said. I thought I must be hearing wrong. “I can wait a while,” I said. “It isn’t urgent, but I would like to see what you guys think about XYZ.”
“Well,” he replied, “You may be waiting some time. I’ve been here five years and we’ve had two staff meetings that I can remember.” Needless to say, the manager of this workgroup wasn’t known for his communication skills. His staff labored mightily trying to fill in the blanks themselves, as did everyone who had to work with them. It was a tough situation for all – there was little to no information getting to this group.
This is taking the desire to pare down unnecessary meetings too far. Workgroups, like any other human organism, thrive on regular communication. This does not mean pulling everyone together and just reading off their orders for the week. If you don’t have anything to say, don’t have a meeting. Be sure that no one else has anything to say before you cancel a regularly scheduled one, however. Just because you have nothing to communicate doesn’t mean your staff doesn’t.
Another method you can use in regular staff meetings to enhance everyone’s meeting skills is to have your staff take turns organizing and running the meeting. This may mean that not all of your meetings are perfectly organized and to the point, but I will argue that you are building towards a larger goal, which is training staff to run a meeting. Like everything else, it takes practice. Help them out, show them how, and then step back and let them learn. You may be amazed at the results. Next thing you know, you won’t have to organize routine meetings – you can just show up with your own agenda items.
If you are going to have a meeting – have a purpose, an agenda, and then make sure the meeting serves the purpose using the agenda. If not, perhaps you didn’t need a meeting. Take that time and take a walk in the crisp autumn air, musing about larger issues. That’s good business, and a better use of a fine fall day.
Ramona Abbott helps businesses maximize their efficiency, effectiveness and group dynamics. She utilizes proven techniques that are fun and affordable to help you improve your workplace in a variety of ways. She welcomes inquiries at 360-398-2606 or ramona@EssentiallyProfessional.com
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