Meetings - How to manage them better
Around 17 hours a week. According to various estimates, that’s the average amount of time a manager spends in meetings.
There are literally millions of meetings going on all around the world at all times. Many managers report that meetings are their number one frustration on the job.
So many meetings waste time. They are dominated by the loudest people. They run too long, they start too late, and they’re not followed up. Often people don’t even know why they are attending.
It’s no surprise that meetings are a source of such angst. However, there are techniques to make them work for you and your organisation. The good news is that these techniques are easy to apply. Meetings can be the most productive way of information sharing, idea generation and decision making, so it’s vital that you know how to manage them. And you need to be able to teach your people the keys to better meetings.
Why are you there?
The first thing to do is establish the purpose of the meeting. From this point, you can clearly work out who should attend. It should always be for a specific reason, and this includes regular, scheduled meetings. If the meeting topic is only of peripheral interest to you, reading the minutes should be enough.
Set an agenda
Yes, it sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many meetings have no specific agenda. The agenda should specify the topics for discussion, and the order in which they will be discussed. Normally it is also best to set time frames for each item, and for the total meeting. This will encourage people to stick to the point and stay focussed.
Be ruthless with the timing
If people are late, don’t start again to bring the latecomers up to speed - they can be filled in later. Don’t forget that meetings are expensive. A multiplication of an approximate hourly rate, by the number of attendees will soon put this into perspective.
The Chairperson’s role
The Chairperson should control the meeting. The Chairperson’s job is to keep the group to the agenda, make sure everyone’s voice is heard and maintain order. This may mean cutting short, where necessary, those who are monopolising the meeting. The Chairperson should summarise everyone’s views and contributions. This ensures that equal weight can be given to opinions, even when dominating personalties have meant equal time was not given.
Managing conflict in meetings
Meetings occasionally will be a source of conflict. It’s up to the Chairperson to ensure that heated discussions do not de-rail the meeting. Sometimes this will mean allowing all parties to talk until everyone’s viewpoint is clearly understood, if not agreed upon. If there is no resolution, then it’s best to close that meeting and let the topic be addressed at another more appropriate time.
What to record
Overly detailed meeting minutes can be tedious to record and be of limited value. Likewise, patchy or omitted information is unprofessional; ideas, contributions and action plans produced in the meeting could be lost. While you don’t have to record everything that everybody says, it is best to list all discussion topics, outcomes and items to follow up. These include issues which remain unresolved. The minutes of the meeting should be circulated the next day, while they’re still fresh.
