Wednesday 3pm

Colin is in another “must attend” meeting. He has a report to get out before the end of the day but no-one seems to understand that. While endless issues are discussed his work day ebbs away leaving him with a tough call home explaining that he will be late again.

The meeting started at one o’clock, well it was supposed to. Frank and Paul didn’t arrive until quarter past. Jane has still not arrived, I guess she won’t be attending so someone will have to explain all this to her later.

They are here to review next year’s budget but Sue and Steve are keen to agree the new office layouts. Andy has the sign off the budget but he disappeared 10 minutes ago on an “important call”, his second this meeting. Lucky for him he is only missing the boy-girl-boy-girl seating plan.

The team decide that they need a better understanding of the IT budget. They said the same last week and still there is no-one from IT to shed any light on the issues. Colin, keen to get home, snaps at Sue, “We said that last week, you were going to sort this!” Sue predictably escalates what is now an argument. Andy rejoins the meeting just in time. The argument quickly fizzles but the quiet resentment smoulders, “Listen guys, I’ve got to go, maybe we can do this next week right?”, Andy gathers his papers, “…and er, good meeting, bye!”

Clearly that is not a good meeting. It cost the business many ways. The costs of having people tied up, the budget process is knocked back another week, morale has dropped and personal time is impacted. By following a few simple steps and disciplines all of this can be avoided. In fact better than that, the destructive energy can be converted into positive energy.

Setting it up right

Be clear about the meeting objectives

A meeting is an investment. It costs time and money. It is one of the few investments that can be made by pretty much anyone in the business. Someone who requires a signature to spend £5 can arrange a meeting that costs £200 in salaried time.

There must be absolute clarity why the meeting is happening. Regular daily or weekly meetings are prone to lose focus as they become a part of regular work life. Attendees can fall into a trap of going through the motions.

Challenge the objectives; be clear, “What will be different after this meeting?”

Meeting must result in action. Decide ahead of time what the possible or likely actions are going to be. Plan your meeting with the result in mind.

Issue an agenda before the meeting

This is your roadmap to keep you on track. Consider it to be the scope of the meeting. Why not highlight what is outside of the scope if you can anticipate any distractions.

Then invite people with the right knowledge and authority

A meeting must of course have the right people. You m ay not expect all to contribute a large amount to the content. Remember the objective of the meeting may be to influence. In which case, some people may be there to keep them involved and ensure they understand the decision process.

As you have decided on the possible or likely actions you will need the people who can deploy those actions either directly or by influence.

You will need the appropriate knowledge base available. Never act on assumptions when data or fact is available.

Finally you need some authority, someone who will keep the meeting on track and will challenge roadblocks. You can use someone who has authority in title or someone who carries a certainly gravitas in those situations.S

et an expectation of “on time or don’t come”

Either you need to be there or you don’t. If you do then show respect for the time that others have invested by not wasting it. If you are the seventh member of a meeting and you are five minutes late you have wasted one man-hour. Being late can be a cultural issue, it may be common. There lies an opportunity; improvement is all about culture change, so what better place to start?

Keeping it on track

Switch phones and computers off

Taking a call or answering emails in a meeting shows no respect for the subject of the meeting or your colleagues in the meeting. Get focused and remove distractions surely calls and emails can wait an hour?

Some may find they are in so many meetings that they have to take calls and emails, there is no other time. But this is exactly the point - reduce meeting time by being more effective. Be more effective by staying focused.

Ensure previous actions are reviewed

Actions must be accepted knowing they must be done. There must be a strong feeling of accountability for completing actions. Actions are the output of a previous meeting, if they are not completed then the last meeting was wasted.

 

 

Stick to the agenda

 

A bit of levity can really lubricate a meeting and develop team bonds but let’s not get carried away. You have an agenda and an objective so stick to delivering it.

 

Interestingly you may uncover some great opportunities through your discussions that are unrelated to your current agenda. Make a conscious effort to note them and come back to them later (if you have time) or arrange a further meeting to handle the new thread.

 

 

Record actions with a “What”, “Who” and “When”

 

Actions are the output of your meeting. They are the results of the investment you have made. They are nothing if not delivered and delivered to the expected standard.

 

Make the “what” specific. What exactly will the action deliver? Beware of phrases like, “look into”, “monitor” and “discuss with” as they have no tangible outcome.

 

The “who” is someone in the room. You should not assign actions to someone who not present as you cannot seek commitment and confirm understanding of the action. Assigning an action to more than one person or “all” will not be accountable. Sure, more than one person may be involved in completing an action but only one should be accountable for it’s delivery.

 

The “when” is a date for delivery. It is important to ensure the person responsible is in control and making progress so do not leave long delivery dates. Break larger actions into smaller ones so that you can be sure that progress is being made. There is nothing worse than finding that an action on which you all rely is 3 weeks late two days before it should be delivered.

 

 

Problem solve outside of the meeting

 

Problem solving can be lots of fun and most people like to be seen as good at it. Therefore it is very tempting to want to solve problems in a meeting. Unfortunately it is very unlikely that you will have all you need to solve a problem and you will slip into bad problem solving habits, such making unreasonable assumptions because you are unlikely to have all the information to hand. Also you will end up marginalising some people in the meeting as they may not be familiar with the problem. So problems must be solved outside of the meeting even if this means you have another, usually smaller, meeting purely for the purpose of solving a problem.

 

 

Only one person speaks at any one time

 

This tends to be a personality trait and caused by someone really wanting to get an idea or thought off their chest. They find the floor is taken and turn to the near polite ear to relieve the burning need to talk. This cannot be tolerated as two or more people stop listening and leave the person who should be talking wasting their time.

 

Deal with this firmly. Ask the team member to shelve the thought and give them some airtime when appropriate.

 

Review without blame and focus attention on the future

 

Most meetings should be about the future, inquiries are an exception. So unless you are in an inquiry, focus 75% of your emotional energy on what you as a team are going to do not what has happened. There should be no room for blame. Holding people to account for failing to complete actions? Yes. Blame? No. The past does have a part to play. History is a good indication of the future if you do not change. Reviewing data, problems, failures and opportunities is all a valid use of meeting time. Trying to solve a problem or blaming someone for a failure is not.

 

 

Making things happen

 

Issue actions within two hours of the meeting

 

Why not issue actions straight away. It takes as long to write the actions two days in the future as it does now. Why not write them in the meeting on a proforma, copy it at the end and hand it out straight away? Keep the actions live and current and give the team as much time as possible to get them completed before the next meeting.

 

 

Make sure the actions are reviewed in the next meeting

 

Actions must be accepted knowing they must be done. There must be a strong feeling of accountability for completing actions. Actions are the output of a previous meeting, if they are not completed then the last meeting was wasted.

 

3t Transformations provides consultancy to large, complex service based organisations. Fireball Meeting Methods is a taster of the services, coaching and programme management our clients enjoy. Visit us at www.3tTransformations.co.uk

 

 

3t Transformations, a company specialising in performance improvement for financial services companies, have developed a workplace-specific series of training seminars and materials to use some of the most powerful elements of this approach in the business world. This approach is called “change for change”. From the very first course participants in this approach saw life changing results,

 

 

“We started to realise there’s no barrier between personal habits and work habits. The impact this has on our teams is astounding, with happier, excited teams raving about the effect that this approach has had on their lives”, Matt Allison, New Programme Developments, 3t Transformations

 

 

So it seems that the secret to changing your habits and behaviours is to look into corners of your life that you think are completely unrelated and start to loosen the web of habits you have spent your whole life building.