- When I first started working
as a consultant and communication coach over 20 years ago,
there was a sign on the wall of a meeting room that said
"No leader?
No agenda?
No time limit?
No meeting!"
In this video,
you'll learn five tips for how to run an effective meeting.
It then certainly includes elements on that sign,
but other details as well,
including a bonus tip at the end
that will really elevate your meetings.
And we're going to consider
some of these prerequisite practices
of running an effective meeting.
That means practicing some of these elements
consistently will not guarantee
that all your meetings will be productive.
But these habits will prevent you
from having unproductive and ineffective meetings.
And there are some more advanced tips
that will elevate your meetings
that we'll talk about along the way as well.
This is going to start out really basic,
but I can almost guarantee
that if you are currently experiencing ineffective meetings,
then your team is not doing
one or more of these five practices,
plus there's that bonus tip at the end.
So use this as a checklist.
Number one, the meeting must have a leader.
This might seem obvious,
but I've been to numerous meetings,
especially committee meetings
where I work over the years,
where the group is meeting regularly
but there's no one clear leader who's driving it.
Sometimes the actual leader can't be there
but they want us to meet without them anyway
to see what we can get done.
This can be very confusing for everybody.
So your first step is to identify the leader beforehand.
And if you're watching this video,
I'm going to assume that you are the leader,
and the rest of the tips will help you
become more effective.
Number two, you must have a written agenda.
I strongly believe that there should be a written agenda
that is sent out a day or so before the actual meeting
so that everybody knows how to prepare beforehand
and then can fully participate once they arrive.
At least send a bulleted email list
of topics that you'll discuss.
So to me, this is like having a leader in the first place.
It's an obvious prerequisite.
But in my experience,
no written agenda is almost the norm for many meetings.
I've attended those,
and those meetings are seldom productive in the end.
A few years ago,
I had to send multiple requests
about a meeting I was invited to,
but I didn't know why I was asked to attend
in the first place.
I never received an answer
about what the meeting was about ahead of time,
let alone a written agenda.
Not surprisingly, the meeting was a complete waste of time.
There are lots of variations of agendas.
No two are identical.
And it really depends upon the norms of your organization.
But generally speaking,
agendas fall into two overall categories.
There are meeting agendas
that focus on sharing information
and other agendas that focus on decision-making
or problem-solving.
In a typical information-driven meeting,
the agenda will list topics,
like announcements, status updates,
various topics of discussion
including categories like old business and new business.
These meetings just keep everybody informed.
This is often the type of meeting
that people will say,
"That could have just been an email
instead of a whole meeting,"
which could be the topic of a whole another video entirely.
Less frequently,
the other type of agenda will emphasize
the key decisions that need to be made
or the problems that the group is there to solve.
A few years ago, I was the chair of my academic department.
I'm a professor.
We had a few meetings in a row
that focused on solving problems and making some decisions
around restructuring our undergraduate curriculum.
Problem-solving meetings like this typically follow
the traditional problem-solving steps,
and you would see this on the written agenda.
First, we identified the problem,
then we analyzed the problem in more depth,
then we generated possible solutions,
identified our best solutions,
and finally took steps to implement our decision.
This decision-making process took
a few meetings to complete,
but I've run other meetings where we progress
through the entire problem-solving steps
in just one meeting.
And there's nothing magic
about either approach to an agenda.
Just make sure you create an agenda for the sake of clarity
and distribute it early.
Get it out to everybody in advance
so they can prepare fully
and then show up and participate fully.
And that leads to our next tip.
Number three,
each person must know what the leader expects of them
to contribute to each meeting.
I believe strongly
that the group leader should let each individual person know
specifically how they should prepare
to participate in any upcoming meeting.
So in addition to sending out the agenda,
I always write a quick email
or have a quick conversation
where I say to each specific person,
"You'll notice that I've listed you on the agenda
for an update on Project Z.
In the meeting,
could you let us know how things are going,
mention any recent accomplishments on Project Z,
and what your next steps are,
and provide a rough timeline
for when you think this phase will be completed?"
If there are eight people on my team,
I'll send up to eight separate emails
letting each person know
how I'd like them to prepare to contribute.
And it works great.
When I prepare people like this,
they know why they're there in their first place.
They bring their A game because the expectations are clear.
The more experienced team members will need
less guidance over time.
But if there's a brand-new person on the team,
I also let them know
that while I'm not expecting them necessarily
to prepare anything big,
I'd like them to make a contribution
and look for ways to add value,
even when we are simply discussing an issue.
I'll say to them,
"Be sure you, number one, ask a question during the meeting.
Number two, offer your point of view.
And number three, build on what other people are saying."
Those are the three easiest ways
to get a new person up to speed and contributing
as soon as they join your organization.
Number four, the leader must encourage and facilitate
maximum participation during the meeting itself.
Nobody likes attending meetings that are life lesson,
nobody's contributing.
So in addition to the previous tips,
it's also a good practice
to send any additional materials
we'd like them to read ahead of time
and let them know how to prep up
for those specific discussions.
But the key to encouraging maximum participation is
by preparing good discussion questions ahead of time.
In a meeting situation,
the best way I've seen this done is,
first, the leader provides some sort of information,
a stimulus, we'll call it.
Second, the leader then asks a clear prepared question
to get a response.
The stimulus might be a report you send out earlier,
maybe some feedback you heard recently.
The stimulus could be anything.
And here's how it looks in the moment.
You pull up the report or feedback,
or whatever information you're sharing,
and you keep it up so the group can see it the entire time.
And then you ask one clear question at a time.
You might even write the questions on the agenda.
You could put one question up at a time on a slide
depending upon the norms of your organization.
The information in this example,
a report, the feedback,
plus a clear question will create
the ideal conditions for a good discussion.
If you miss either of these,
you'll probably not generate
as helpful of a discussion as you could have.
Groups have the best discussions
when the leader provides the stimulus
and then asks them to respond.
Number five, and then I'll give you the bonus tip.
You must have a clear time limit for lots of reasons.
A time limit will make the group work more efficiently
rather than waste time.
The number one thing
that makes people work more efficiently in a group is
when people notice the time.
So at some point in every meeting I've been in,
somebody will say,
"Oh, we only have 20 minutes left.
Let's get moving."
So use that sensibility to your advantage
by signaling the time limits once in a while.
And at a minimum,
a time limit will at least bring
the ineffective meetings to a close
and end everybody's misery.
A time limit also puts more pressure on the leader
to be at his or her best.
A time limit makes the leader
manage the time more effectively in the moment
and move the conversation forward when it's dragging.
A time limit will encourage the leader
to reign in and refocus members
who tend to ramble and go on tangents.
A time limit will encourage the leader
to make sure the overall pacing of the meeting flows well
so the proper amount of time is devoted
to the most important topics of discussion.
One of the positive pieces of feedback I received
on my annual review when I was the chair,
that I was secretly the most proud of,
was that the faculty believed
that we never had a wasted moment in meetings.
Every minute was time well-spent.
And now for the bonus tip,
the tip is to leave more space
for your team members to talk to each other.
Instead of a mindset of "running" the meeting,
see yourself as "facilitating" a meeting.
Here's what I mean.
The most common pattern I've seen in meetings is
where a team member will say something or ask a question
and the leader then is the first person to respond.
This creates a pattern
where the leader is really having
a bunch of one-on-one conversations,
even though you're in a group.
It looks like a straight line of communication
going back and forth between the leader and each person.
Meetings like this rarely feel dynamic and energetic,
and it short-circuits
what could have been a good discussion.
Instead, those kinds of meetings lack creativity.
They lack collaboration.
In short, this doesn't take advantage
of the power of the group,
which is one of the key reasons
to have a meeting in the first place.
Instead of a back-and-forth line,
visualize the communication pattern like a star,
like the kind of star you draw
where the communication bounces from one person to the next
until it goes full circle.
And you as the leader can create this pattern.
To start it,
when you ask a question or when somebody says something,
resist the temptation to jump in.
Leave more time and space
for the other team members to respond.
So you'd still listen carefully,
use good non-verbals like eye contact and nodding.
Maybe you'd make a small verbal utterance, like ah or um.
You'd still affirm them non-verbally, in other words.
But instead of saying something, articulating your idea,
look around the room to invite responses from others.
You could even ask them, "What do you all think?"
The goal of this is to get the team members
talking to each other
in ways that lead to a dynamic and collaborative discussion.
And keep asking questions
to keep that conversational ball rolling.
The conversation then becomes one that you facilitate
rather than run or manage.
If you get the conversational dynamics right,
your meeting will be 10 times more satisfying for everybody.
Here's the expanded checklist
based upon the sign that I saw on the wall
and that consulting company I work for,
plus the other tips we added today.
Again, many of these are prerequisites.
That means this doesn't ensure
you'll have lots of amazing meetings,
but it will virtually guarantee your pointless meetings.
And many of the other tips
about generating more discussion will help level up
any team's conversation.
Be sure to take a look at the resources
in the description below,
including a free PDF download
of the top five essential communication skills
that every professional should have.
Until next time, thanks.
God bless, and I will see you soon.