5 Ways to Stop Running Horribly Inefficient Meetings

Meetings suck.

Sorry if that sounds too rude or blunt, but you know it’s true. Meetings, while sometimes necessary and occasionally useful, are quite often a giant waste of time.

Ask someone who spends long hours at the office and they’ll tell you that it’s because they spend so much time in meetings they have to work late to get their “real work” done. Even if the meeting itself is necessary, it’s not uncommon for it to take much longer than it needs to.

If you are a leader or manager, then it is your job to run the meeting. This means it’s your job to be respectful of everyone’s time and to make the meeting as efficient as possible.

Here are five ways of doing this that you may not have considered:

1) Start and End on Time

This one should be a no-brainer, but for some reason it isn’t. And quite often, it’s the leader who’s the worst offender.

If you’re running the meeting, be there ready to start on time. If all possible, don’t wait for people who are late. If tardiness is a persistent problem with some attendees, talk to them and let them know that it is unacceptable.

Similarly, don’t let your meetings run over time. Be respectful of everyone’s time, and don’t be the reason someone ends up late for another meeting they have to attend.

2) “Time-box” Your Activities

Time-boxing is a time-management technique where you break your activities into small chunks and then assign blocks of time to work on them. When the block of time is done, you move on. You can do this in your meetings as well.

Once you know what you need to cover in your meeting, assign a time period to each item. Spend only that much time on each item, and make sure that’s the only thing you focus on during that time. You’ll be amazed at how efficient you can be when you

1. Assign a time-frame.
2. Only focus on one thing at a time.

As the leader, it will be your job to make sure everyone sticks to the schedule and stays on task.

3) Know What Decisions You Have to Make. Then Make Them.

Meetings (specifically, internal team meetings) are best used to do two things:

1. Brainstorm ideas
2. Make decisions

Sadly, so many meetings end up being filled with status updates or meandering discussion.

Before you run a meeting, be clear on not just what you need to cover, but what outcomes you need to achieve. Be clear on what decisions need to be made before the meeting ends. Then make those decisions.

Decisions can be made by majority vote or an individual (in the case where one person owns the project). But nothing happens until a decision gets made. So don’t let your meeting end without making the decisions that need to be made.

4) Use a Consent Agenda

The first time someone explained a “consent agenda” to me, I thought, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a set of pre-meeting reports.” Boy was I wrong…

In a nutshell, here’s how a consent agenda works.

• Everyone attending the meeting submits a report of what they have been up to, what challenges they have faced, and what they are proposing. The report needs to be submitted in advance by at least a few days.
• One central person collects and emails out the reports to everyone. Everyone reads all the reports when they have time. But it has to be before the meeting.
• At the meeting, the person running it makes a motion to approve the consent agenda.
• If you (or anyone) wants to discuss any part of someone’s report, you say so here.
• Once all the bits that need to be discussed are identified, the group votes to pass everything else that’s still in the agenda.
• Once that vote passes, those items are not discussed the rest of the meeting.
• The group then goes through all the items that were marked as “to-be discussed.”

That’s it. I’m sure I’ve over-simplified it a bit, and you “Roberts Rules” loving types are probably blowing a gasket, but that’s the gist. For more info, search Google for “consent agenda.”

The beauty of the consent agenda is that it eliminates the boring, pro-longed status updates that bog down every meeting.

“What if people don’t read the reports in advance? What if they don’t submit them in advance?”

Good questions. This is the greatest strength and weakness of the consent agenda: it forces your meeting attendees to act like professionals and adults…

If you’re the leader, take a hard line on both submitting reports and reading them in advance.

It may be difficult at first, but it will be well worth it. With one organization, we were able to cut a board meeting that traditionally took two hours down to thirty minutes – and sometimes even less!

5) Get Rid of the Chairs

To be honest, I have not tried this idea, but I love it in concept.

The next time you have a meeting, do it standing up. Use a room that has no chairs, remove the chairs from the room, or just force everyone to stand.

It is very easy to sit back, get comfortable, and lose track of time when you are sitting in a comfortable chair at a big conference table.

If you want to run an efficient meeting, take that comfort away. Have everyone stand up and you’ll be amazed at how efficient people become.

Having a “standing meeting” can be incredibly useful for brainstorming session. Creative energy is usually much higher when people are standing up then when they are slumped back in a chair.

This approach won’t work for all people, all environments, or all types of meetings. However, when you can use it, you may find it to be incredibly powerful.

When used effectively, meetings are a great way to collaborate, stay on track, and make key decisions. When used poorly, as they so often are, they are a great way to waste a lot of people’s time. Try the five techniques above to run better, more efficient, and more productive meetings. Your employees will thank you!

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About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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