The most common complaint I hear about meetings is that they're a waste of time. Although they need improving, meetings aren't a waste of time. Useful things do happen in meetings — just not enough useful things for the time we spend in meetings. The key to improving meetings is to spend more time on activity that produces value and less time on activity that doesn't. Here are ten steps for doing just that.
- 1. Publish the agenda in advance
- Advance publication of the agenda gives people an opportunity to think about it, to prepare, and to speak up if they're moved to. And if the first agenda item is "Approve the agenda" they'll know about their opportunity to amend it. Including a "not-agenda" lets everyone know what's off limits for the meeting.
- 2. Exclude from the agenda any items you cannot influence
- Groups sometimes try to address problems in their meetings that they aren't authorized to address. This is a waste of time and energy, and it takes time away from agenda items the group is supposed to address.
- 3. Include time allocations for all agenda items
- Time allocations enable the chair or facilitator to track meeting progress, possibly with the help of a Time Keeper. If an item overruns it time allocation, cancelling another agenda item might be wise. Without time allocations, the decision to cancel some other item might be difficult indeed.
- 4. Make clear distinctions among What, How, and Why
- When we're talking about what we're describing the thing itself. When we're talking about why we're explaining its purpose. When we're talking about how, we're outlining the steps for achieving it, or the steps by which it came about. Mixing these up into a single discussion is a recipe for trouble.
- 5. Have a Designated Digression Detector
- A Designated Digression Detector (DDD) is someone who is empowered to announce — without being recognized — that the meeting discussion has digressed when it clearly has. By having a DDD the group gains a valuable asset that enables participants to focus on the matter at hand and not the process of the meeting. Moreover, that asset acts as a deterrent. Nobody wants to be the person who is interrupted by the DDD.
- 6. Write agenda items as "to-resolve" instead of "to-discuss"
- Agenda Useful things do happen in meetings —
just not enough useful things for
the time we spend in meetingsitem titles expressed as commands are more likely to produce a result than those expressed as processes. For example, "Decide on an approach to resolving the race condition" is more likely to produce a result than "Discuss the race condition." - 7. Beware of shared information bias
- Shared information bias is the tendency of groups to focus discussions more on topics the participants already know about, and less on topics with which they have less of a sense of familiarity. The effect of this bias is to waste time on already-plowed ground.
- 8. Avoid being seduced by technology
- Software tools can be very effective for managing group efforts, but few tools are meant to be used during meetings of those groups. Data entry and editing processes are usually too slow and cumbersome for meetings. Make notes and deal with the tools later, after the meeting.
- 9. Impose a three-exchange limit
- When two participants go back and forth about something, the likelihood of resolving their differences after three exchanges is low, and it drops with each additional contribution to their exchange. Impose a three-exchange limit. After that, have the pair pursue a resolution after the meeting and report back later or at a subsequent meeting.
- 10. Make exhibits meeting-friendly
- During the meeting, whether in-person or virtual, we often need to talk about exhibits (documents) that had been distributed to everyone for review. Most of the time, we reference specific sentences, phrases, lines, or cells in those documents. Waiting for everyone to locate those items takes precious meeting time. Make exhibits meeting-friendly. Save time by numbering pages, numbering lines, inserting bookmarks, or highlighting in color the items that you plan to talk about.
Last words
Eliminating all wasted time from meetings isn't possible, in part, because we can't determine in advance all time that's wasted and all time that's productive. All we can do is focus on producing what we believe will be useful, and let the rest take care of itself. Top Next IssueDo you spend your days scurrying from meeting to meeting? Do you ever wonder if all these meetings are really necessary? (They aren't) Or whether there isn't some better way to get this work done? (There is) Read 101 Tips for Effective Meetings to learn how to make meetings much more productive and less stressful — and a lot more rare. Order Now!
Your comments are welcome
Would you like to see your comments posted here? rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.comSend me your comments by email, or by Web form.About Point Lookout
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.
This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.
Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.
Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.
Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.
Related articles
More articles on Effective Meetings:
- Take Regular Temperature Readings
- Team interactions are unimaginably complex. To avoid misunderstandings, offenses, omissions, and mistaken
suppositions, teams need open communications. But no one has a full picture of everything that's happening.
The Temperature Reading is a tool for surfacing hidden and invisible information, puzzles, appreciations,
frustrations, and feelings.
- Games for Meetings: IV
- We spend a lot of time and emotional energy in meetings, much of it engaged in any of dozens of ritualized
games. Here's Part IV of a little catalog of some of our favorites, and what we could do about them.
- Tangled Thread Troubles
- Even when we use a facilitator to manage a discussion, managing a queue for contributors can sometimes
lead to problems. Here's a little catalog of those difficulties.
- Twelve Tips for More Masterful Virtual Presentations: I
- Virtual presentations are like face-to-face presentations, in that one (or a few) people present a program
to an audience. But the similarity ends there. In the virtual environment, we have to adapt if we want
to deliver a message effectively. We must learn to be captivating.
- Newly Virtual Politics: Meetings
- Pandemic or not, workplace politics marches on. But with the pandemic and the prevalence of formerly
co-located teams becoming more virtual, workplace politics takes a new form, especially clearly so in
meetings.
See also Effective Meetings and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
- Coming May 8: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 3
- Recognizing just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can reduce the incidence of problems. Here is Part 3 of a collection of antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure, emphasizing past experiences of participants. Available here and by RSS on May 8.
- And on May 15: Should I Write or Should I Call?
- After we recognize the need to contact a colleague or colleagues to work out a way to move forward, we next must decide how to make contact. Phone? Videoconference? Text message? There are some simple criteria that can help with such decisions. Available here and by RSS on May 15.
Coaching services
I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.
Get the ebook!
Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:
- Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
- Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
- Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
- Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
- Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
- Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )
Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info
Follow Rick
Recommend this issue to a friend
Send an email message to a friend
rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.comSend a message to Rick
A Tip A Day feed
Point Lookout weekly feed