Meetings are the “broccoli” of conducting business.
I, like probably many of you, do not like the taste of broccoli. We eat it because our parents, doctors, and nutritionists told us that broccoli was good for us. Meetings are the broccoli of conducting business in organizations. We do not relish meetings, but we participate in them because they are often a necessary requirement for getting things done.
As you sit in meetings, do you often wonder?
- Why are we having this meeting?
- How am I going to deal with the work that is accumulating while I am in this meeting?
- Could we accomplish what needs to be done without having this meeting?
It gets even worse when we are leading the meeting and the participants are pondering these questions about our meeting.
The way you conduct meetings can increase your productivity as well as others participating in your meetings. Conducting effective meetings is one of the touchpoints of Presentation, one of the 6Ps of Personal Marketing that I covered in the article “Do the Right People Know Your Brand?”
Marketing is a component of operating The Business of You to create personal value from your career—your most important economic asset.
During my corporate career, I developed a meeting planning and preparation format that gained the recognition of my peers and team members for being an effective meeting leader and organizer. The format included the following components.
- Desired Results
- Approach
- Actions to Be Taken
- Participants
- Reality Check
- Preparation
- Duration
- Timing
- Logistics
This is the first of three articles. It covers Desired Results and Approach.
Determining the type of meeting will provide the basis for establishing the Desired Results. For meeting planning purposes, I classified meetings into 3 types.
- Informational
- Updates
- Closure
Informational meetings:
- Clarify why a project, activity, or initiative is being started, how it will be executed, and who will be responsible for doing what.
- Set a direction.
- Establish the organizational position on a situation, incident or event.
- Provide other essential information required to ensure the achievement of an objective.
Before scheduling an informational meeting, determine if a meeting is the most effective means of providing information. You should also determine if the meeting should be accompanied by the communication of information to facilitate understanding of the purpose of the meeting (Desired Results).
Updates can facilitate the tracking of performance, progress toward accomplishing objectives, resolution of issues, and adjustments to the execution of a project, initiative or activity. The effectiveness of update meetings can be enhanced by:
- Scheduling recurring meetings at a designated time (e.g. 10:00, Wednesdays). This will increase the chances that the meetings will be attended by individuals whose participation is essential to monitoring progress.
- Ensuring continuity among meetings. This will avoid repetitive and unproductive discussions of items that were covered in previous meetings. An effective means for ensuring continuity is the follow-up communication of meeting notes after each meeting. Key components of an effective follow-up communication are what was decided, actions to be taken (tasks, who is responsible for completing the tasks and when the task will be completed), confirmation of priorities until the next meeting, and the time, date and agenda for the next meeting. Follow-up communications can be delivered by email or by placing meeting notes in collaboration tools such as SharePoint or Google Drive.
How many times have you participated in a project, initiative or activity that never seemed to end? Closure meetings are like funerals, they confirm the end (it’s all over!). Closure meetings confirm results or accomplishment of the objectives and inform individuals that they are no longer required to work on the project, initiative or activity. These meetings can also ensure that results or solutions are integrated into on-going operations or organizational processes.
To establish Desired Results, ask:
- What type of meeting am I going to conduct (informational, update, closure)?
- What need will the meeting satisfy given the type?
Another way of establishing the desired results is what I call the bus stop answer. Think of people assembled at a bus stop waiting for a ride to their cars in the parking lot at the conclusion of your meeting. The bus stop answer should be the same answer that you want all the meeting participants to provide when asked:
What happened or what did you get or achieve as a result of the meeting you just attended?
Desired Results should be something tangible and stated as a noun to ensure focus and clarity. Following are examples of desired results.
- Approval of funding to initiate project
- Agreement on project plan
- Assignment of responsibilities
- Common understanding of roles and responsibilities
- Action plan (tasks, responsibilities, dates)
The Approach is the Agenda. It will provide the sequential steps required to achieve the Desired Results of the meeting. For example, a meeting with the desired result of approval of funding of a project proposal may include the following steps.
- Define problem to be solved or the opportunity.
- Reach agreement on the solution to the problem or what needs to be done to take advantage of the opportunity.
- Communicate and ensure understanding of the benefits the project will deliver.
- Establish how the project benefits will be measured and tracked.
- Establish how risks will be managed.
- Establish how the project execution will be monitored.
- Communicate when the project will start and when it will end.
- Establish actions that will be taken to initiate the project after funding is approved.
Notice that each step started with an action verb. Use of action verbs ensures clarity.
Steps that you establish for the Approach should be governed by what other meetings have occurred, what information is needed to achieve the desired results, your company’s processes and your company’s culture. The culture in some companies may require summary information while others may require detailed information.
Establishing Desired Results and Approach can be iterative. You may find a need to refine or change the Desired Results based on insight that you gain as you develop the Approach. However, the Approach must be consistent with the Desired Results. Establish the what (Desired Results) before you establish the how (Approach).
The next article will address Actions to be Taken, Participants and Reality Check.
Do people ask you why your meetings are being held?
Do people run for cover when you send meeting notifications?
Have you discovered after meetings that the meetings were not necessary?
Do you encounter difficulty keeping your meetings focused?
Do you find it difficult to keep participants engaged during your meetings?
Has anyone asked you for frequent meeting hours awards for attending your meetings?
I invite you to share your comments, experiences, and suggestions. This helps me provide information that may help you address your career opportunities and challenges.
Fields of Success offers complimentary coaching sessions. Visit the Contact page on the Fields of Success website to schedule a session.
Linwood Bailey is a career coach and the author of The Business of Me: Your Job … Your Career … Your Value. The Business of Me provides a career management process and information designed for today’s business professional. Since 2008, Linwood has enabled business professionals to manage their careers. Linwood, the been there coach, provides innovative career management solutions derived from his 34 years of experience managing functions and people in multiple industries, regions, and corporate cultures.
Founder, Fields of Success, LLC
Enabling professionals to convert career challenges into career success stories.