Meeting Guidelines

Purpose:

 

This document contains guidelines for setting up and managing meetings.  

 

Background

 

Meetings have become a way of life for businesses.  In fact, many people have gotten themselves into the box of attending or holding meetings to the exclusion of everything else.

 

Is this okay?  It could be, but then isn't everyone expected to spend time in creative and productive individual contribution?  Is it a good approach to spend most all of our days rushing from one meeting to another with no time left over for creative thinking and working?

 

If all, or even the majority of meetings within the business, are well planned and well run meetings, then maybe the answer to the above questions could be yes.

 

What constitutes a good meeting?

 

The following items characterize good meetings!!!

 

  1. A good meeting is necessary and has clearly stated goals
  2. The benefits of a good meeting clearly outweigh the cost of having the meeting.
  3. A good meeting is timely.
  4. A good meeting has the right participants to achieve its goals.
  5. A good meeting will change behavior of participants in some positive way.
  6. A good meeting creates actions to be carried out by participants.
  7. A good meeting requires the right environment.

 

We obviously already know all this -- everyone does -- we just don't pay enough attention to it when planning and running a meeting.

 

This list is not intended to be all inclusive.  it is good enough criteria, though, for the reader to use to consider all meetings attended during the last month to evaluate whether some of the time would have been more productively spent working in the office and then to apply some of these concepts to future meetings.

 

Let's get to the specifics of how to plan and run an effective meeting by examining each criterion individually.

 

Is a meeting really necessary?

 

There are other ways to effectively communicate in addition to meetings.  Too much emphasis is sometimes placed on "eyeball contact."  Most meetings between two individuals (and a large number of meetings with more than two people involved) can be handled more efficiently through the combination of telephone calls and written communications (e-mails or letters).

 

Before arranging a meeting, quickly think about what objective(s) would be met through the meeting.  Just the simple act of thinking about what  would be achieved through a meeting may show hat a telephone call will achieve those objectives.  Once the objectives have been captured in our minds, they should be written down so that we don't lose them.

 

The objective statement is a requirement for formulating a simple agenda.  The first cut of the agenda is merely a list of topics required for discussions to meet the objective.

 

this list also helps to decide who would need to participate.  The best list of participants is almost always the shortest possible in meeting the objectives.

 

We have all been impacted by the "telephone tag" syndrome.  It is sometimes easier to have a meeting than to reach the person on the phone.  Guess why that's true -- You've got it -- everyone is out of the office having meetings.

 

The recommended process is:

 

  1. Determine the objective(s) of the meeting -- what is the desired outcome?
  2. Who would need to be involved to achieve the objective(s)?
  3. Can a telephone call do it?  If so, don't have a meeting.
  4. Can the objective(s) be achieved through a writtten communication (email or document or letter)?  If so, do it without a meeting.  Don't forget to state the objectives in the communication.
  5. A combination of written communications and a follow-up call is sometimes a good alternative to having a meeting.
  6. If numbers 2-5 above won't achieve the objective(s), then a meeting should take place.

 

Meeting Cost

 

Most meetings don't really cost anything unless travel is involved.  If you think that statement is true, maybe it is why you are involved in so many meetings.

 

In addition to the "apparent" cost of meetings (the cost of coffee, donuts, travel, lunch, and for more extensive meetings, lodging), there is the "real" cost.  The "real" cost also includes the loss of opportunity of attendees and the overhead costs associated with them.

 

To make the arithmetic simple in determining the "real" cost of a meeting, let's assume that each person directly involved in the meeting (considering all of the overhead expense to the company on top of salaries) will cost $75.00 an hour.  A four-hour meeting consisting of five people will use 20 people hours and have a hidden cost of $1500.00.  This excludes, of course, any time spent in preparation, follow-up, or travel to/from the meeting.  One might expect in the very least case that for such a meeting held locally there is an overhead in time foreach person of 15 minutes on each side of the meeting and another 45 minutes for each in either preparation of follow up to the meeting.  We now have to add on another 6.25 hours or another $468.75 to the cost for a total of $1968.75.

 

It is not unusual in many groups to have a meeting like the one above (commonly called a staff meeting)  on a weekly basis.  Over a year, such a staff meeting would then cost about $98437.50, at a minimum, it held 50 times.  This is not to say that weekly staff meetings are bad -- it is just to point out that they are expensive.

 

To compute the cost of a meeting, one must add all of the "apparent" costs to all of the "hidden" costs to determine the real cost.

 

Once this has been done, the real cost can then be compared to the stated objectives to determine whether a potential meeting is really worthwhile.  This comparison may show that we should go back to the first tradeoff exercise armed with cost information to see whether, considering cost, the potential meeting is really necessary.

 

Timeliness

 

Timeliness is key to a successful meeting and consists of more than just starting the meeting on time and ending it on time.  The following list may be used as a guideline when considering timeliness of meetings.

 

Make sure that the meeting is held while there is still time to execute and achieve impact on the opportunity at hand.  Having a meeting too late to act will result in an "ain't it awful" meeting rather than a "let's make sure we do it right the first time" meeting.

 

Preliminary information, including the agenda, distributed to attendees well ahead of the meeting with allow attendees to come prepared to make decisions, resolve problems, and take well-defined actions for follow up.  Insure that attendees understand that they are expected to come prepared and will not be able to keep up with the meeting if they are not.  

 

Start the meeting on time.  Let the people who arrive late that you will not start over to accommodate them (even if it is the boss).  The boss may sometimes overrule this process, but the point will be made for future meetings.

 

Make sure that teach agenda item is well defined, including agenda items objective(s) and a statement of responsibility for the presenter, sponsor, and other meeting attendees.  At the start of each agenda item, quickly go over this statement to refresh attendees' minds on objectives.  Once this has been done, run the agenda stocking closely to stated objectives while avoiding "rat holes" and "hidden agenda."  Table any side issues which are identified along the way.  These can be covered at the end of the agenda item or at the end of the meeting.

 

The sponsor and the presenter have a responsibility for time management of their agenda item.  They must decide how much time is required, bring the right information to achieve stated objectives, and stick to their topic and schedule.  The meeting boss should enforce it.

 

Contain each agenda item within the allot4ted time.  Be assertive in cutting off side conversations or discussions which detract from or add no value to achievement of the objective(s).  If it becomes obvious that the time frame must be exceeded to meeting objectives, take a quick break from the topic to determine whether it is more important to continue the current topic at the expense of later ones or whether the current topic must be abandoned.

 

Order the topics in priority order if it can be done and still give good local flow to the meeting.  This allows topics to be dropped off the agenda if the decisions is made in the prior paragraph to strategically run over the allotted time on higher priority items.  Nothing is ever free.  If one agenda topic is allowed to run over, another agenda item should be given up.  Don't make it easy to run past the schedule.

 

End the meeting on time.  This is especially important if the meeting ends during normal working hours.  Don't cause attendees to have to plan their day on the fly because of your inability to run a tight meeting.  Don't be surprised when people get up and leave at the end of the scheduled time.  It is they who are exhibiting the correct behavior -- you are infringing on their right s to execute good time management by your inability to do the same.

 

Meeting Participants

 

Valuable manpower is wasted in meetings by having the wrong set of people in attendance.  many times general issues are worked at meetings with people in attendance who have little or nothing to take from or give to the meeting.

 

We should only have people at meetings who can add value in terms of making decisions, supplying information, or being informed so that they can do their jobs better.

 

Roles which are necessary for a successful meeting determine to a great extent who the participatnts should be.  The following list contains some of the roles which are important for running an efficient meeting:

 

  1. The chairman of the meeting
  2. The minute taker (Recorder)
  3. A sponsor and/or presenter for each topic
  4. The appropriate decision maker(s)
  5. People who must be informed or who can supply detailed information.

 

The person who is in charge must make it clear that the meeting has definite objectives and the process to be used to achieve them.

 

The Recorder should capture only pertinent information.  Long mnarrative type minutes serve very little purpose except to consume time on everyone's part.  The minutes should include only that inofrmation which changes behavior.  This includes decisions made, issues resolved, actions taken (don't forget dates and assignments), and enough supporting verbiage to allow understanding by attendees subsequent to the meeting.

 

Each agenda topic should hav a designated sponsor (generally an appropriate level manager and a designated presenter if different from the sponsor.

 

If decisions to be made are a part of an agenda item objective, then the decision makers should be present.  Advance preparation is almost always required for complex or high-impact decisions to be made during meetings.  The sponsor must insure that this preparation has been made prior to the meeting.  If such preparation is not possible, then the best approach is to expect the first pass to be FYI only with decisions made subsequent to the meeting.

 

Meetings are a good way to inform people with pertinent information which allow them to do their jobs better.  Many times it is valuable to have people attend meeting for specific agenda items so that they can observe first hand the decisions which are made around issues related to their jobs.  Many times these very same people who are there to be informated become a good source of detailed information which allows quality decisions to be made "on line".  The trick is not to load the meeting up with so many people that it becomes unmanageable.

 

Meetings should change behavior of Attendees

 

This is a fancy way of saying that a good meeting will:

 

  1. cause actions to be taken through a method that insures follow-up to closure.
  2. cause decisions to be made and recorded.
  3. educate people so that they can do their jobs better.
  4. inform people so that their perspectives are correct.

 

Actions

 

This is important enough to deal with as a separate item.  During the meeting as action items are identified, they should be recorded by the person taking the minutes.

 

  1. Each action should be discussed and recorded for the minutes
  2. A person should be assigned who is responsible for completing the action.
  3. A target date should be assigned for when the action must be completed.
  4. A process for determining whether it has been completed must be specified if it is not obvious.

 

At the end of each agenda item, the actions should be read back by the Recorder for verification of completeness and accuracy.  The minutes should be published as soon as possible after the meeting has been completed -- as a guideline, within two working days.

 

Meeting Environment

 

There are two opposing viewpoints on meeting environment:

 

  1. Make the environment as austere as possible, i.e., no chairs so that people will try to finish as quickly as possible.
  2. Make the environment as comfortable as possible so that the attendees can maintain peak performance throughout the meeting.

 

For very short meetings with limited agenda, the first approach is okay.

 

For lengthy meetings, though, the second one is a must.  In a working meeting where significant time or mental energy is expended, the room must be large enough so that people can move around and stretch during agenda items.  There must be plenty of working space to spread out documents, the room must be supplied with necessary working aids such as flip charts, wall space, overhead projectors, etc.  comfortable chairs should be provided to help eliminate exhaustion and backaches.  

 

The room temperature should be comfortable, and the room should be well lighted.  A process should be in place to insure that messages can be received during breaks and at lunch without interrupting the meeting.  There should be no phone in the meeting room.

 

Breaks should be taken often enough to prevent people from taking them casually under the guise of biological necessities.

 

Agenda items which are heavy in terms of mental energy requirements should be scheduled early in the day preferably following as short first agenda topic switch allows everyone to settle in.  The energy level in the room should be sensed from time to time to make sure that the attendees haven't intellectually "abandoned ship".  A short stretch break will often rejuvenate people, especially during the latter part of a hard day.

 

Wrap Up

 

When the agenda has been accomplished, a short wrap up session should be held.  during this session, any tabled items should be dealt with and any general issues sbout the meeting, especially follow-up required, can be put to bed.  The participants may want to give inputs to the meeting charirman about the general meetingt environment during this session.  The session should not be longer than 30 - 60 minutes.