An End to Death By Meetings

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Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

At the end of a meeting I attended the other day, I almost witnessed a scene that is all to familiar in the business world.  A group of people, often very highly paid, sit around in a room for hours, discuss lots of great ideas, make statements regarding things they would like accomplished and about actions they would like “someone” to take.  When the meeting breaks up, everyone walks out of the room and promptly forgets everything that was discussed until the day of the follow-up meeting.  All too often, during that next meeting, no one has done anything that was last discussed and nothing has been accomplished.

If this is a common scenario, why bother meeting?  We do so because meetings are valuable tools where colleagues have an opportunity to gather to:

• Discuss ideas
• Challenge each others thinking
• Get input from multiple perspective
• Make decisions
• Develop plans of action
• Build consensus on issues of importance
• Work collaboratively on projects
• And a host of other very positive things

There are some very practical steps that can be taken to maintain the value that meetings have the potential to provide while eliminating the wasted effort and time so commonly experienced.

• Have and publish in advance an agenda – Published agendas are used so that everyone knows beforehand exactly what is to be covered in the meeting and how they should prepare.  If you are not the meeting organizer, after reviewing the agenda, make sure you understand why (or if) you are necessary to accomplish the meeting’s objectives before you agree to attend.
• Keep a running list of action items – All throughout the meeting, some should be keeping a running list of every request for action that is made by anyone during the meeting.  That way, it eliminates the need for everyone to later try to remember everything that was said.  If the list can be kept in a manner that is visible to all participants – on a white board or flip chart – that is even better.  It allows participants to more fully participate in the entire meeting without worrying whether their point was captured and eliminates the need for them to repeat it.
• Assign each action to an individual – aAt the end of the meeting, the group should collectively go through the list of action items that were captured.  Some items may have been covered during meeting or are no longer relevant.  These items should be deleted.  The remaining actions should be assigned to an individual.  If there is more than one person that needs to be assigned, one person should be identified as the primary person responsible for initiating the necessary actions to complete the item.
• Assign a due date to each item – There should be collective agreement on when each item is due.  A specific date is needed here, not something vague such as “two weeks from now.”  If the action is a long-term effort, a date should be identified for some interim steps that are necessary to initiate the item.
• Publish the assignments – As soon as possible after the meeting, the complete list of assigned actions should be distributed to all meeting attendees.  The longer it takes for the attendees to receive this list, the greater the chance that their commitments go “stale” in their minds and they become more committed to other issues.  It will require greater effort for them to reengage so send the assignments while there is still some momentum.

Incorporating these simple disciplines into your meeting practices will greatly enhance the productivity of your meetings and keep everyone coming back for more.

Have a powerful day!

Cecilia