Meeting Management

Introduction

In the course of the normal workday, managers attend or conduct a number of meetings. More than a million meetings will be held this year at corporate conference centers alone, in addition to the millions of daily meetings inside the office. But most managers have no formal training in how to plan and run meetings, that is why we consider 25 percent to 50 percent of all meetings to be unnecessary or unproductive.

Nido Qubein, author of Communicate Like a Pro, has a golden rule he urges on all managers weighing the pros and cons of scheduling a meeting: "If you can get the job done without holding a meeting, then calling one is a waste of time." Wasting time in meetings is not just a business problem. The same lack of skills applies to professional and trade associations and community activities.

If we are to make these meetings productive, we have to plan for both productivity and communication. The key to this planning is an agenda that answers the following questions:

• Do we need a meeting?
• Who should come to the meeting?
• What do we need to accomplish at the meeting?
• How long should the meeting last?
• Where should the meeting be held?

Less that 10 percent of all meetings have agendas. We are too busy for such niceties. The meeting participants need time to prepare for the meeting - to gather information. If people have a chance to think ahead about their remarks, the remarks may better deserve listening.
If ten managers are going to attend a meeting and the meeting last two hours, then ten people times two hours means 20 work hours. Take salary, fringe benefits, overhead, administrative expenses, and the estimated cost will be $700 an hour per meeting. Is the meeting worth it? It depends on what the meeting will accomplish. Most of the people who attend meetings would be doing some useful and productive work if they were not there. Too many meetings serve little purpose as a medium for communication. We have to be aware of our time and how to conserve it.

Agendas

Why do you want to see all these people face-to-face at the same time? Do you need to reach a decision about something? Do you want to share information? Do you want to have a discussion around a problem - and do you plan to resolve the problem at the meeting? Is this merely a fact-finding conference?

Once an objective is established, it's important to ask what alternatives there are to a full-blown meeting. Could you disseminate the information in a memo or via electronic mail? Could you make a few quick phone calls?

If once you've asked these questions and it looks as if a meeting is unavoidable, then it's time to start planning an agenda.

There are four key steps in preparing a good agenda. They are:

1. Make a list of the items you want to discuss. Be sure to keep it brief and specific - one line should be enough for each item.
2. Decide which person at the meeting will be responsible for each item. Never ask someone to a meeting without having a reason why you want him/her there. It may be to handle an agenda item; it may be that you need him/her there for political reasons. Just make sure you have a reason.
3. Decide what process you'll follow in handling each item. Do you just want to give out information? Do you want to get information? Do you want to solve a problem with the item? Do you want to reach some sort of decision about an item? If you just want to discuss something but don't want to reach a decision at this point, tell your meeting attendees that and explain why?
4. Set a time limit for each agenda item. Be sure you're realistic though - don't give five minutes to a controversial item you know everyone is going to have an opinion on.

Timed agendas make meetings listenable. They help in estimating how long the entire meeting will be - the $64,000 question for your busy and meeting-jaded attendees. This will help people adjust their schedules. For instance, tell participants that from 9:00 to 10:00 we will deal with topic "A". From 10:00 to 10:30, we will deal with topic "B". From 10:30 to 11:15, topic "C", and so forth. In that way, meeting attendees can limit their presence to a time from which they can benefit and contribute. Non-contributors have a negative effect on the dynamics and achievement of the meeting objectives. It contributes to inertia and adds dead weight.

No meeting should be planned for over two hours in length. If your meeting must last longer than that, provide rest breaks every 60 - 90 minutes. That's about as long as people can go before they'll start getting up themselves and going for coffee or whatever.

The best time to schedule a meeting is from 9:30 to 11 in the morning. That gives people time to get organized at their desks, answer phone messages and clear out their in-boxes before they come to the meeting. They've had a chance to plan their days, chitchat with colleagues and drink their first cups of coffee. Then they're ready to sit down and concentrate with clear minds. If the morning meeting is not possible, the next best time is from 1:30 to 3 in the afternoon - as long as it ends on time. Room in the afternoon should always be left at the end of the day to go back to the desk and clear things up before going home.

Of course, these are just guidelines. If the corporate culture is different from this concept, the rules change. If your corporate culture is one in which people meet regularly for breakfast, lunch or late afternoon, then go with that.

Before the Meeting

• Determine the purpose of your meeting. Consider the other available communication mediums, their cost and then choose the most efficient medium. If the most effective is a meeting, follow the rest of the guidelines. If not, forget the meeting and choose the more effective method of communication.
• Prepare a draft agenda. List the items that the meeting can usefully discuss. See the Four Key Steps listed on the previous page.
• Select the participants on the basis of their abilities to contribute to and profit from the meeting. If participation and discussion are important, limit the number of participants to five or six with a maximum of nine. A dozen or more people cannot effectively participate in a discussion.
• Circulate the draft agenda. Include a firm return date for comment.
• After you have received and considered comments on the draft agenda, prepare the final agenda. Include the topics to be discussed, date, time and place of the meeting, a list of the participants and their functions. And - to help manage the distracting interruptions from your meeting - an indication on how messages will be delivered to participants during breaks in the meeting.
• Arrange the logistics:

1. Reserve the room. How many times do you go to a meeting to find that nobody remembered to reserve the room?
2. Plan and arrange for whatever audio visual support may be necessary.
3. Arrange the amenities; ash trays, pencils, note paper, water, glasses, etc.
4. Arrange for coffee breaks and meals, if necessary.

• Coordinate travel and hotel arrangements - if out of town participants are to be at the meeting.
• Prepare sufficient copies of any documents to be used at the meeting. If reading in advance will help the participants prepare for the meeting (it can often reduce the meeting time spent briefing participants on informational matters), send out documents in advance, perhaps with the agenda. If people from outside your organization will attend the meeting you may want to schedule a pre-meeting with your colleagues to coordinate strategies, roles and viewpoints.
• Select a meeting leader on the basis of his/her ability to make the meeting work. Select someone else to take notes. The presence of a note taker often inhibits free expression of ideas at a meeting. If this is the case, do not take notes. However, if notes will be useful, a participant should not take them. A note taker cannot effectively contribute and note taking inhibits the note taker's ability to listen effectively.
• If foreign visitors will participate in the meeting, determine what customs and meeting style will make them feel comfortable and welcome.
• Prepare an attendance sheet - not to record truancy, but to help the note taker prepare the minutes.

At Last Minute (Or Hour)

1. Check on the documents that you will be handing out.
2. Visit the site immediately before the meeting to assure its readiness.
3. Set up and focus any audio visual equipment (make sure you have adequate extension cords).

Conducting the Meeting

1. Start on time as a courtesy to the people who have shown up on time. It assures the participants that this is to be an orderly, well-run meeting that deserves their listening attention.
2. Introduce the participants to each other by name and function. Name badges or an exchange of business cards may help. The badges and tent cards can be prepared ahead of time or the participants can write out their own with felt-tip markers.
3. Tell participants where they can find restrooms, coffee machines, telephones, or whatever else they may need. In addition to courtesy, this information helps eliminate distractions and promotes listening. Participants won't have to worry about these things when they should be listening to something else.
4. Remind them how messages will be handled.
5. Review travel arrangements. This will help reduce tension for those who have connections to make and will allow them to give full attention.
6. Review the agenda. Reinforce the purpose of the meeting. Modify the agenda as needed to take care of last minute developments. Once the "official meeting" has begun, stick to the agenda - especially in terms of time limits. The moderator should make sure that what the group has agreed to do in 15 minutes doesn't take an hour. When the meeting starts, the time limit ground rules must be set. As time starts to run out on one item, the moderator should notify the attendees that they've spent as much time as agreed to on the subject. Then the moderator should offer alternatives: i.e., come back to the topic later, table for next meeting, or deal with it differently. The moderator should be a consensus builder who can say: "This is what we set out to do, here's where we are. We can take one or two or three of these tasks. . . ."
7. Avoid microphones and recording equipment. But if necessary, tell participants how and why it will be used. It would be useful to offer participants copies of any recordings that may be made. Tell them how they may arrange to comment off the record. This is another way to reduce tension.
8. Summarize and note action items or agreements as you go from one item to another.
9. Keep track of time and pace the meeting with the available time. If people know your meeting will start and end on time they are less likely to be distracted by concern that the meeting will overrun other items on their personal schedule. If it looks as if the meeting is going to run over, be sensitive to your group's needs. Ask them if they would like to continue for another half hour (always set a time limit on the extension) or meet again at another time. This gives people who have other meetings or business to attend to a chance to have a say in the matter.
10. Plan follow-up meetings and actions. It is best to summarize each item and the action that was taken.
11. End on time.

After the meeting

1. Prepare the minutes promptly. Minutes are not a transcript. They should be concise but should contain:

• Date, time, place and purpose of the meeting;
• The names of those who attended;
• Conclusions, agreements, action items and assignments.

They may also list open items. To be effective, the minutes should not try to summarize the discussion. They should not try to point out who said what and who disagreed with whom. They should not record for posterity, who made dumb statements and who suggested foolish ideas, and who is to be nominated for the Nobel prize for meetings. Such minutes inhibit guesses, hunches, opinions, suggestions if they are going to be recorded forever in the corporate archives.

1. Minutes should not reward poor listening behavior by presenting the content of the meeting to people who did not listen. Many people who attend will not bother to listen - they can read what happened in the minutes. Minutes that are summarized transcripts serve as an inducement to ineffective listening.
2. If necessary, particularly if the meeting includes people from outside of your organization, check to see that all participants feel that the minutes fairly reflect the meeting.
3. As needed, again, particularly if outsiders were present, you may want to have a post-meeting evaluation session with your own colleagues.
4. Follow-up action items, those assigned to others as well as to you.
5. Review the meeting in your own mind. What did you learn that would be useful in planning, conducting and follow-up for other meetings? Was anyone there who truly didn't need to be?

Were the "speechmakers" effectively handled - and what should be done the next time the situation comes up? Five minutes of your time immediately after the meeting saves you a lot of time in the long run.

All the preparation for meetings may seem like a lot when you're very busy. But when you think about the hours you waste in inefficiently run meetings, isn't it worth it? Remember, a successful chairperson plays two roles - director and lead actor. Double duty calls for plenty of preparation, sensitivity and often a willingness to share center stage with other performers. Learning to carry it off with skill and brio guarantees a reputation for command performances and the kind of enviable results that enhance a manager's reputation and can boost their career.

How to Stand Out at Someone Else's Meeting

You're not running the show, but that doesn't mean you can't stand out. Here are a few tips that make you a sought-after participant:

• Do your homework - before the fact. When an agenda hits your desk a few days before a meeting, read it. Make notes about relevant points to discuss next to each entry. If you have questions, ask them sooner rather than later. The more information you have compiled before entering the boardroom, the better.
• There are no small parts, only small actors. This holds true in the workplace as much as it does on-stage. There's no need to hog the limelight. Don't be tempted to grandstand. There is no need to threaten the chairperson's authority by attempting to gain control. Instead hold your thought until the time is perfect. Then let them wow your co-workers.
• One great idea is better than a handful of so-sos. Limit idea-making to one or two issues where you can back up your proposals with statistics, experience or new research. Try to test the reaction to these issues before the meeting if you can. Talk to your co-workers, even your superiors. Try to gain your bosses support. Remember, the thing the boss hates most is a surprise - even if it is a prize winning surprise. It is much better to rework the proposal before hand than risk the prospect of a no-go vote in front of your peers.
• When you're the new kid on the block, it is important to follow someone else's lead. Stand back and let people assume their regular seats before you take one. You don't want to lose the support of the senior vice president by taking her favorite chair. Observe a meeting's dynamics before jumping into the action. Your old company may have encouraged screaming matches, but these people could be whisperers.
• All ears? Three cheers. Listening attentively - with your eyes and your body as well as your ears - can win points, not to mention the same consideration when you've gotten the floor. If you're whispering to your neighbor, you'll never know when important information is flying past.
• A cause-and-effect relationship. Link your ideas to a promise of action and the prospect of immediate benefits. Show that A leads to B, that leads to C, using charts, diagrams and past examples.
• No one can resist a volunteer. Back up your ideas by volunteering your group or yourself to assist in the analysis, implementation, etc. It is tough to resist a committed volunteer.
• Don't drop the ball. If you've been asked by the chair or you volunteer to investigate an idea or develop a proposal, do so. Send a memo summarizing your findings within several days. Even if you haven't been able to finish the job, send a memo to let her know you're working on it.

Conclusion

Regardless whether you are conducting the meeting or attending the meeting, pay attention to detail. Listening and communicating define your successful participation in the meeting. If close to 40 percent of your working time is spent in meetings, it is important that you make this time effective. Stick to a strick agenda that has been distributed in advance to those who will attend. Don't make the meeting environment to comfortable. Set a time limit on the meeting and each agenda item. Manage the meeting. Promptly respond to those action items assigned to you. Prepare in advance for the next meeting. Good luck!