Avoiding Death by Meeting - Part 1

Use people’s time well and you are sure to be popular. People will seek you out, take your calls and look forward to your meetings. Use people’s time poorly and they will attempt to avoid you, even if you happen to be the boss.

Time is by far our most precious asset. Since we cannot increase this asset we try our best to protect it and maximize how we use it. Through the artful use of the word “no,” we can successfully defend our time against most of those who want to abuse, misuse or steal it. However, this is much more difficult to do when it comes to our bosses. They have the power to demand and direct our time. One way they do this is through holding regular meetings.

If you are apt to say, “I have to go to the [you fill in the blank] meeting,” with a bit of exasperation in your voice, then it is fair to say that you don’t believe that participating in the meeting would be the best use of your time. I have spent some of the best years of my life in some of the worst meetings you can imagine.  A few of these I even conducted myself. Self-inflicted pain hurts the most. 

As leaders, we can save countless lives (including our own) by redeeming our meeting time. According to Patrick Lencioni, author of Death by Meeting, the problem is not that we have too many meetings, but rather that too many of our meetings are boring and ineffective. 

We need to face the fact that meetings are a necessary part of organization life. They provide the opportunity for exchanging vital information and ideas, and create a forum for engaging in open and honest dialogue and rational decision-making.  Because of their importance, it makes sense that we should strive to plan and conduct meetings that are purposeful, relevant and engaging for all of the participants. Below five suggestions to get you started. I'll share five more next week.

1. Hold some of your “standing meetings” standing up rather than sitting down. Lencioni suggests holding brief Daily Check-in meetings where team members report their activities to one another. It is all done in about five minutes while standing up. The purpose of these meetings is to help ensure clarity about how priorities are being translated into action each day. Lencioni argues that these meetings save time, especially by replacing the need for numerous email exchanges among team members.  
2. Develop and scrutinize your agendas in advance. Once you have your agenda finalized, try to cut it by 50%. This will force you to select only the most critical items while still leaving plenty of time for discussion. If you keep the agenda compact, the worst thing that will happen is that the participants will lobby you for more meeting time in the future.
3. Start and end your meetings on time, always. This honors the people who have made the meeting a priority and sends a clear message about how much you value everyone’s time. If there is a legitimate need to extend a meeting beyond the designated ending time, do so only by consensus. If there is no consensus, schedule time for another meeting.  
4. Consider making none of your standard meetings mandatory. People should not be forced to attend meetings. Clearly explain the purpose and benefits of each meeting and leave people to make their own decisions. Most importantly, however, hold each person accountable for the information that is exchanged and the decisions that are made during the meetings, whether they choose to attend or not.  
5. Invite people to your meetings based on need and relevance, not position or standard practice. Attendance at meetings should never be about status – i.e., who is invited and who is not.  Instead, attendance ought to be based solely on the relevance of each person’s contribution with respect to the purpose and process of the meeting.

Implementing these suggestions and incorporating similar strategies will not only help you avoid the slow and painful fate of “death by meeting,” but will heighten the vitality of your team interchanges. If you work at it, you can create the type of meetings that people look forward to attending.