TL;DR If a meeting is needed, have a clear goal in mind, invite the least number of people who can provide input for the topic. Start the meeting communicating the context and the goal; drive the meeting to keep it on track and productive and avoid tangential conversations. Follow up with a summary of the meeting, highlighting key ideas, agreements, decisions and next action items with key owners.
Introduction
I have not yet heard anyone saying: “I’m really glad I have 5 meetings today”. Everyone dislikes meetings, but meetings are always there, and to be fair, they are needed, at least sometimes. Meetings are typically seen as a waste of time and a distraction, but they don’t have to be, meetings are a great opportunity for collaboration. Here are some of the habits that I’ve found useful to have productive meetings.
Before the meeting - Prepare
- Have a goal in mind: ask yourself what you are trying to achieve with the meeting. Consider these leading questions: is the purpose to be informed or inform others?, are you looking for feedback about one proposal? Are you looking to choose between competing options? Are you trying to brainstorm about an issue or new product? Are you trying to “sell” an idea or project to some folks? Are you trying to clarify and ask questions about a given topic? Keep in mind that having too many or too ambitious goals might prevent you from making progress in any direction. It is better to divide and conquer, and make sure the goal of your meeting is something manageable.
- Use the right tool: sometimes we don’t need a meeting, and we can get the job done with a quick instant message (Slack, MS Teams, etc), or maybe just an email, or a quick phone call. A meeting allows us to discuss, and go back and forth about a relatively complex subject. A meeting might be an overkill in cases when interactions are mostly unidirectional, or not a complex topic, or unlikely to require questions and different perspectives, etc. Also, aim for shorter meetings, force yourself to cover the content in 30 mins whenever possible.
- Have an audience in mind: If the meeting is needed, keep the audience as small as possible. Make sure each one of the attendees have some interest or contribution to the topic. Consider these leading questions: who is needed and why? What’s each invited person expected to provide: approval, feedback, support, answers? What’s the nature of the content: technical, business, strategic, tactical? is everyone equipped to follow along the topic?
- Prepare the flow of the meeting: Gather key facts and materials, recall previously agreed decisions. Think a bit about how to present your ideas, the sequence and the level of abstraction.
During the meeting - Drive
- Context & Intro: state where the topic of the conversation is at, what has been done, what’s pending, what’s the issue at hand. Reduce the ideas to the essential aspects, this should be a quick section just to bring everyone to the current state, and get them ready and prepared to provide the input they can offer.
- State your goal: let people know what you are expecting from them and from the meeting in general. If the audience knows what’s expected, you have a better chance of getting the input you need.
- Have a flow: expose ideas in natural and logical flow. Go from high level to low level details. Only give details which are relevant, at the right time, not too early. Keep in mind, the attention span of your audience is short, and the working memory of the brain is short, and it is easy to lose your audience. Avoid giving them non relevant information, or simply too much information before they are ready to digest it.
- Compare options: when trying to decide between options, make sure you present them in the same frame of reference, with the same attributes: time, effort, complexity, flexibility, etc. So, the options can be matched and compared, otherwise the team will have a hard time contrasting them and providing input.
- Questions: make sure to ask your questions well posed and framed, don’t ask questions to people that cannot answer, for example a question with a heavy technical aspect might not be well suited for a non-technical folk. Each team member is playing a role, with some responsibilities and knowledge, think about if a question can actually be answered by a given person.
- Drive: you have a goal in mind, drive towards it, keep the conversation on track, avoid people jumping randomly off topic, stay on the relevant aspects of the purpose of the meeting. Again, the more people invited to the meeting the harder it is to stay productive and on topic.
- Postpone: identify issues that merit a whole conversation on its own and postpone them, don’t tackle everything in a single meeting, unless it is really necessary. Postpone issues/aspects and details which are not relevant to achieve the goal of meeting. Again, divide and conquer and tackle one thing at a time, so it is possible to make progress.
After the meeting - Summarize
- Reply to all the attendees with a recording of the meeting, if possible.- Reply to all the attendees with a summary of the meeting, highlighting key ideas, agreements, decisions and next action items with key owners. If a follow up meeting is likely needed, this summary will help to recap and start from where you left off.- Of course, saying thanks to everyone who contributed to the meeting goes a long way.
Why is this important?
- Time: is our most valuable resource. Discussions that could take 15 mins, should not take 1 hour.
- Respect: when coming prepared to the meeting, you show respect for other people’s time, and the value of their input.
- Convergence: bring the conversation to the point of interest, make the decision, sell your idea, etc.
- Rework: avoid discussions about issues and topics previously decided, avoid going in circles.
- Outcome: you have a better chance to achieve your goal of the meeting. This allows teams to collaborate effectively, get on the same page, make decisions and move on to get things done.
Key Take aways
- Prepare: Avoid meetings if possible, identify the audience, define the goal, gather supporting materials.
- Drive: Recap the context and highlight the goal, stay on topic, postpone auxiliary aspects, ask good questions.
- Summarize: State the agreements and solved aspects, identify outstanding aspects, list next action items with owners.