There's nothing worse than going into a meeting with no clear agenda. If you're anything like me, you value your time more than almost any other asset. As a salaried manager my average work day is usually in the 10-12 hour range, sometimes as high as 16-18 hours. The amount of time I spend at work is dependent upon my workload and what I need to get done. I don't hang out at work "just because" - and something tells me that most other salaried employees don't either. So having nearly 10% of your day wasted by an unproductive meeting can be frustrating to say the least.
Far too many organizations hold meetings just for the sake of holding meetings. Or hold meetings with no clear agenda or defined objective. Other than the obvious negative consequence of wasting everyone's time, holding these types of meetings kills morale. And worst of all, this morale kill will affect the most dedicated and hard-working employees the most, since they are the ones who attempt to be as productive as possible throughout their work day.
So rather than killing the morale of your best employees, consider the following five points before setting up yet another meeting that results in lost time and minimal results.
1. Have a clear objective that everyone attending the meeting is aware of before the meeting starts. This will help keep everyone focused on accomplishing that objective. A meeting invite titled "Discuss Project X" with no other details doesn't tell much. What about Project X? What are we trying to accomplish? Provide details as to what the ultimate goal of the meeting is and people will come prepared; if not, they'll only be prepared to waste time.
2. Have someone lead. This doesn't necessarily have to be the highest ranking person in the room; on the contrary, it is often beneficial to have a mid-level team member lead the meeting to help boost their confidence and gain experience. But regardless of who it is, that person should be able to keep the meeting on track and reign it in whenever it begins to drift away from the objective. If your objective is to narrow down deadlines and responsibilities for phase one, two and three of "Project X", then there shouldn't be any discussions about what you're going to be doing with phases four, five and six.
3. Ensure the meeting is time bound. Not all meetings are equal. So it stands to reason that they shouldn't all be scheduled to take up the same amount of time. Sometimes meeting objectives can be accomplished in as little as 10 or 15 minutes. Others may take over an hour. Be realistic with the time required to accomplish your pre-established objectives and stick to it. Be respectful of everyone else's time. Just because you don't have anywhere important to be afterwards doesn't mean that everyone else doesn't.
4. Have egos checked at the door. If you walk into a meeting thinking you know better than everyone else then why even meet? The point of meeting with a group is to get different insight and perspective from your peers, not to shove your opinion down everyone's throat. Take a moment to listen and make it a point to first seek to understand before seeking to be understood.
5. Encourage complete candor from everyone in attendance. If people are afraid to speak their minds during a meeting then you run the risk of losing out on some potentially great ideas. If someone is particularly quiet during the meeting then stop and ask them what they think. The people who speak the least often have the best ideas but may be too afraid to share them. Encouraging open discussions where everyone is free to say what's on their mind will create an atmosphere of creativity and ultimately build stronger bonds with all those involved.
The overall format and structure of meetings can vary from organization to organization, but following these five guidelines will ultimately result in more efficient and effective meetings regardless of your organizations preferred format or structure.
"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life" - Charles Darwin