Meetings are an integral part of work, although everyone complains about them. Microsoft research shows that we spend most of our working time in meetings. It’s where creative processes, development, and management decisions are made, things are explained, and relationships and teams are built.
Meetings are costs; people’s time is a resource that companies pay for. It’s the largest expense they don’t track. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Add to this the wasted energy of demotivated participants after the meeting and the cost of wrong decisions.
Meetings won’t get better thanks to guidelines from handbooks and training sessions; these haven’t worked. First, we need to recognize that they are part of the job and establish that managers are responsible for their productivity. It’s best to start fixing necessary regular meetings. Control and reduce the rest.
Here are several practices that will help improve the effectiveness of meetings in any company:
Social Behaviors
Meetings require social skills that don’t come naturally. People tend to prolong their statements, digress from the topic, and focus on their own ideas. This reduces the effectiveness of meetings.
One way to counteract this is the two-minute rule for each statement. It teaches conciseness and forces preparation. Practicing active listening and constructive speaking is also crucial.
Productive participation in a meeting requires practice and conscious effort. Trust within the team allows members to openly share ideas and accept criticism. That’s why it’s worth starting with groups where people already trust each other.
Time Limitation
Meetings should always start and end on time. Delays and prolonging discussions undermine principles and respect for others’ time. Time frames motivate focus on the most important issues. Adhering to them builds a culture of efficiency and accountability.
Material Standardization
Instead of traditional presentations, it’s worth dedicating the beginning of the meeting to silent reading of prepared documents. This method, used in Amazon among others, leads to more productive discussions. It eliminates the problem of superficial presentations and focuses attention on the essence.
Introducing standard formats and templates for presentations and reports saves time on preparation and data interpretation. When everyone knows the document structure, they focus on content, not form. It’s easier to compare information between teams and periods.
Discussion Structure
Effective meetings require good discussion. At the beginning, the problem or question should be precisely defined so that everyone is talking about the same thing. Then, solutions are sought, considering at least two possibilities besides the „do nothing” option. Only after selection do we move to action planning.
It’s crucial that all participants are in the same phase of discussion simultaneously. Jumping between phases leads to chaos and inefficiency. This structure needs to be practiced and refined to become a natural element of organizational culture.
This is difficult because problem-solving never wants to proceed linearly. That’s why it’s sometimes necessary to reach for group methods of working on topics – for example, using boards, collaborative work, and independent brainstorming.
Decisions in Notes
In common practice, „minutes” are used for meeting arrangements. These are detailed records of conversations, often containing unnecessary details and irrelevant statements. Instead, it’s worth recording only key decisions.
When a decision requires action, a clear record is needed: who does what and by when. This micro-format even has an acronym – WWW (Who, does What, by When).
Always stop when ending a discussion block. That’s when a decision is made, not at the end of the meeting. By recording them on an ongoing basis, the note can be sent within an hour after the meeting. It’s also worth giving participants a chance to straighten out arrangements, especially those that concern them.
Consistency
At the beginning of each meeting, it’s worth returning to previously made decisions. This approach ensures work continuity and accountability for commitments made. For decisions to have power, it must be clear that they won’t be lost.
Continuous Improvement
A short round of opinions at the end of each meeting, where participants say in a maximum of two minutes what was good and what could be improved, helps in their continuous enhancement. It also engages team members and builds a sense of influence on the quality of joint work.
The key is consistent application of these methods and regular evaluation of their effectiveness.