5 Steps to Maximizing the Value of Meetings

You know the person who calls a meeting and then wastes your time? Don’t be that person.

It is not uncommon to hear people complain about the number of meetings they have to attend, and that is nothing new; this was probably as true back on Julius Caesar’s staff as it is today. When you call a meeting you are asking people to spend some of their valuable time to help you achieve something. If you are going to do that, then make the most of the opportunity.

Meetings represent an expense, in terms of time, and as with any expense, you want to maximize the value that you get from it. Putting a little thought into how you run meetings can help you get more out of them. Below are 5 things you can do to help you get more out of the time you spend together.

1. Every meeting does not need a detailed agenda, but it does need a clear purpose. Is this an informational meeting, or do you expect a decision to be made? If it is informational, are you sharing with the group, or are you looking for information from them? If it is to make a decision, will it be made by consensus? Majority vote? Just by you? While you might not have a strict agenda or schedule to follow, at least be clear on what you expect to achieve and how you intend to get there. Do not keep that a secret, either. How many times have you walked into a meeting and asked a colleague, “what are we here for this time?” If people know why you are having a meeting they are more likely to have the information they need, and will be able to make more informed contributions while also getting more out of the session. None of the participants should ever be confused about why they are there.

2. Have some techniques that keep the discussion moving along. A farewell party I attended had a method for keeping the speeches short and sweet: speakers had to put their hand in a bucket of ice water, and they could keep talking only as long as their hand stayed in there. While that might make a mess of your conference room, you can certainly find other ways to keep the discussion moving forward. Some organizations have tried “standing meetings,” and it is no surprise that when people cannot sit back and get comfortable, they have an incentive to wrap things up quickly. Consider having “phone free” meetings, so people stay focused on what’s being discussed rather than on what’s on their phones; if they are keeping up with messages and emails instead of keeping up with the discussion, they are not only less engaged, they also have less incentive to finish things and get back to their desks. Along these lines, always try to stay on topic. If you are in a brainstorming session then the conversation is likely to drift, but otherwise, keep the talk focused on your objective for the meeting. When you hear yourself say “Not to change the subject, but…,” that should be your cue to stop talking.

3. Start when you say you are going to start. If participants have to sit around and wait for others (or worse, wait for you!) to show up, they will be less engaged by the time things actually get going. If you get a reputation for starting meetings late, others will arrive later and later over time, and that leads to resentment among those who were there when they were supposed to be. When you plan to use technology, set it up in advance; no one wants to arrive for a 2pm meeting and watch you play around with cables until 2:15. Rather than covering a lot of background material at the start, perhaps you can send that around when you schedule the meeting, so people can be up to speed when they walk in, rather than some playing catch-up while others sit around bored. Respect the other participants’ time by being ready to start when you say you are going to start.

4. If you are going around the room asking for inputs, start with the junior person. Whenever I saw this used in the military, which probably has a more formal hierarchy than your organization does, it worked very well. If you start from the top and work your way down, the junior people are more likely to be influenced by their seniors. By starting with the junior ranks you are more likely to get their honest views, which may allow for some new ideas you would not have heard otherwise. It also encourages them to stay more engaged in the meeting if they know they will have a voice, which can translate into higher engagement when they go back to work afterwards, too. I once had an employee at a government ministry in Singapore tell me, “My job is to sit against the wall in meetings for 20 years until it’s my turn to talk.” That is an incredible waste of talent, so consider how you can get more value from all the participants. If you do not think they have something to offer, then maybe they should not be wasting their time there.

5. Do something with the results of the meeting. If a decision is reached, follow through on it. If information is generated, do something with it. Few things are more frustrating than feeling like you have wasted your time when nothing changes. Send around a follow up message afterwards so people remember what was said and they also see that you remember, so they have a sense you will do something with it. When you do carry through, update people again. If you are not going to move forward the way you talked about in the session, let people know, and let them know why; otherwise, they will not be so trusting with their time when you next call them together.

Meetings, whether in person or virtual, are a fact of life in an organization. They are not naturally bad, but like many useful things, they can be abused to the point where they create problems. When you pull people out of their individual work and into a group you have an opportunity to get some positive things done. Whether or not you take full advantage of that opportunity depends on how you run it.