5 Meeting Traps and How To Fix Them

I just returned from a good meeting.

Everyone was engaged, no one dominated (unless it made sense because of specific expertise), and every speaker followed up to check for understanding. It was more like sitting around a warm fireplace in winter than a typical business meeting.  So, it made me think about the planning that went into it and how it was led.

If you've struggled through more than a few bad meetings, I'm guessing you've experienced the following traps. Here they are and how to fix them.

1) People think they are experts.

Many people tell me that they know how to run an effective meeting. Actually, all they do is host a party. They invite guests, provide treats, and preside over a conversation. People talk. People eat. And nothing happens. Or, if they somehow manage to reach an agreement, there's no concrete follow-up to implement it.

What to do: Learn how to design and lead successful meetings. Attend a workshop, buy a book, or hire a facilitator who also teaches you what and why (s)he is doing so you can do it yourself the next time. If you are a leader at any level, being a meeting pro is linked closely to your long-term success. Recognize that there are systematic ways that can help people make practical, methodical progress toward results. Of course, you have to know what they are in order to use them. 
If you want professional help, contact me (609.654.7376) and we can look at the most sensible way for you to learn how to become a meeting pro.

2) People think they are inspiring.

(Inhaling deeply for extra breath): Too many meeting leaders labor under the delusion that long-winded announcements and dissertations impress others. The opposite is true. A long lecture quickly becomes a boring (and sometimes offensive) harangue. Why? Most employees want an active role in contributing to the business; listening to a lecturette feels like a waste of time.

What to do: Design meetings that give attendees opportunities to contribute. 
Plan questions that focus thinking on the situation at hand. Use activities 
that help people make decisions. Communicate your own thoughts  in e-
mails and casual converstations. If you must use a meeting, keep announcements brief and crisp (less than a few minutes).

3) People think others agree with them.

Many of us rely on nods, smiles, and eye contact to measure acceptance. Most employees will do anything to appease a boss. And if the boss seems to be 
upset, the employees will become even more agreeable. Then, once the meeting 
ends, the employees will do one of three things: 1) forget the lecture, 2) ignore the message, 3) sabotage the idea.

What to do: Conduct meetings using an agreed process that everyone considers to be fair and effective. The single best element to remember: people will accept decisions that they helped make.

4) People think others are clairvoyant.

How many times have you received a meeting invitation without an agenda? At the same time, you were expected to arrive with a vision for what needs to be done. Whenever we go to a meeting, we do bring our private hopes, fears, and solutions to the situation supposedly being addressed. But without a clear agenda and a solid process to work the agenda, the result is something between chitchat and chaos, depending upon the complexity of the issue.

Note: A vague agenda, such as a list of topics, is about as useful as no agenda.

What to do: Write out your goal for the meeting. Then prepare an agenda that is so 
complete someone else could use it to run the meeting without you. Specify each 
step and provide blocks of time scheduled time. Send the agenda at least a few days before the meeting so that the attendees can use it to prepare. Call key participants before the meeting to see if they have questions or want to talk about the agenda.

5) People think meetings are necessary.

Have an emergency, surprise, or a twitch? Call a meeting. 

Uh, no.

A meeting is a special and often expensive process. It should be used only to 
obtain results that require the efforts of the right group of people working together in the right way on the right issue. Meetings are not universal cures for whatever ails the work group. Held for the wrong reasons, meetings waste everyone's time and can undermine the leader's actual intentions.

What to do: Challenge every meeting for its ability to add verifiable value to your business objectives. If successful, do the results outweigh the cost of holding a 
meeting. Is there another activity that could accomplish the same result? 

Yes?

Use it.

Number 5 is the one that really gets to me; I often come down fairly hard on clients and associates whose first step in addressing an issue is to call a meeting. Given my business and the importance of using time wisely, unnecessary meetings are unnecessarily costly. I hate when that happens.

Reader Expertise Wanted!

Meetings are one thing we all have in common. Weigh in with your own experiences, traps, and techniques--you'll provide help to a lot of people who are looking for it.

Comments

[Al Smith]

I completely agree with #2. I am a sales/leadership trainer and long lectures violate many adult learning principles. At the end of the day, a real meeting has a strategic goal and adults want to be an active participant in reaching that goal. Planning activities or giving attendees an opportunity to offer ideas and insight will prevent the dreaded lecture and ensuing boredom.

Great post!!

[Scott Verrette]

I agree with all of the good points made above and would add a couple more of my own based upon my past experience:

- Don't be a slave to meeting length. If you can finish a meeting originally planned for 1 hour in 25 minutes then by all means end it early. It's a waste of time and demotivating to force people to sit in a meeting that has outlived its usefulness.

- Assign action items at each meeting (who commits to do what and by when) and do so in writing. Then follow up on those action items and subsequent meetings to ensure progress is being made on key issues.

- Involve everyone in the room in brainstorming potential solutions to vexing problems. Sometimes the best, most obvious and most elegantly simply solutions come from those who have little direct involvement in the situation and therefore have a fresh perspective.

- As the meeting leader don't give undue attention to people in the room who are disruptive or who are dominating the conversation since that only serves to reinforce undesired behavior as a means of gaining visibility for those who like to be in the limelight. Become adept at quickly shifting the focus of a conversation to a different person or to a different topic when necessary.

The skills required for leading an effective meeting are both an art and a science.

[Denise Green]

Love this. And I took the extra breath with you with number 2. I saw an article that you've probably also seen, that showed that meetings where people stood the entire time were more efficient. And I like messing with people and inviting people to meetings that are 37 minutes (or some weird number) long (I also like to give 7 minute breaks). Also, I think it's good practice to start meetings at 5 minutes (or more) past the hour. One of my favorite things about being self-employed is that I no longer have to attend habit meetings like weekly staff meetings or project planning meetings that have 3 times as many people as we need. Wasting people's time is such a morale killer. I love Amabile's research in the book The Progress Principle. Meetings, unless they help people move forward on a good piece of work, can be terrible energy drainers. My business partner Heather has a three minute video up on our facebook Welcome page with practical ideas she's used to help her global clients make meetings more effective. http://www.facebook.com/EvokeBrilliance

[Supervisor training]

I could not agree more! If only everyone was aware of it it would save so much time and we could be so much more productive! I have bookmarked your post and will send it to my colleagues.

[Niglon]

Make sure that two sides are considered and make sure you can iron out a way forwards in the concluding timings of the meeting!

[Place]

Great tips, thanks for sharing. I can add that the debriefing in a meeting is often forgotten. We tend to rush the end due to a lack of time, but this is an important aspect.

[Ashlee Chu]

I most certainly agree with 2 & 3. Those two seem to be the most overseen "small" issues that can derail a meeting's purpose altogether.