6 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEETINGS!

How are the meetings? Are people passive or active? Do they pay attention? Do you think your meetings are powerful or sometimes a bit slump?

Here are 6 tips to reinforce and improve your meetings!

Tip #1 : Be aware what “kind of” meeting you are running!

According to Seth Godin there are 3 types of meetings:

1. Briefing : When you actually provide information about something, it is irrelevant whether the audience likes it or not.

2. Discussion: When you pick up a topic and encourage the audience to think and reply. It is practically a brainstorming.

3. Approval: You raise something and hope to get approval and affirmation (of course people can disagree here as well).

A meeting is often tiring because participants have different opinions about what kind of meeting they attended. So it’s best to open with defining what the purpose of that day’s meeting is.

"I would like to inform you at today's meeting about the details of the summer shutdown…

"I want to discuss a delicate matter with you in today's meeting, so I look forward to your input…”

"I would put it to the vote at today's meeting on what we should do with…”

Tip #2 : 15 minutes rule

Have you ever heard about “Parkinson’s Law”?

(Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote a humorous essay for “The Economist” in 1955. It’s about a lady who spends her whole day writing and sending a postcard to her niece. However it would take for a busy person like 3 minutes.)

Parkinson’s Law is the adage that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion.

It means that if meetings are consistently booked for half hour long sessions but often only 10 minutes are really needed, the meeting will still take half an hour, and the colleagues will be tired unnecessarily.

Have you ever wondered why TED-talks are 18 minutes long? That’s because this is one unit of optimal attention span.

In light of this, it is worth setting a time limit for meetings. Best length is around 15-20 minutes. If the alarm goes off, finish the meeting immediately.

Tip #3 : Involve people

Give different roles to attendees like writing the memo, giving a summary of the previous meeting, spreading the handouts, writing on the whiteboard, installing the projector, etc.

With that kind of task you may not be able to involve everyone, but then next time give those roles to someone else.

Tip #4 : Presence

Live meeting:

If in the rooms the chairs are placed in rows, you should pay extra attention to the people in the back. People are more likely to choose seats in the back if they are tired, when they want to chat with their buddies, or want to check their e-mail.

What you can do is to address relevant questions that come up especially to the people in the back. They will be aware that they “can not hide” and will concentrate and engage more.

Online:

If the camera is off, participants could cook, wash the dishes, be on their phone, pet their dog, water the plants - anything. If their camera is on, they pay attention to the meeting, and that also helps them to bond better with each other.

Tip #5 : Circumstances

5.1. Running a standing meeting can be extraordinary and very effective! Decisions are made faster, and people tend to be more enthusiastic while standing and more skeptical when they sit down.

“Standing during meetings boosts the excitement around creative group processes and reduces people’s tendencies to defend their turf, according to a new Washington University in St. Louis study that used wearable sensors to measure participants’ activity levels.” (1)

5.2. Ask people NOT to bring their phones to meetings. It’s a huge temptation for distraction

Tip #6 : Questions

There are three types of questions we can ask at meetings.

1. questions to help you understand

2. issues that support the process (for example, when we make sure everyone is talking about the same thing)

3. and those which confirm our own position or question someone else's position

All three kinds of questions have a raison d’être, but let’s not confuse them. Ask questions that help understanding first, then support the process, and finally generate discussion. (2)

Good luck with your upcoming meetings!

(1) („Get up! New research shows standing meetings improve creativity and teamwork”, Source.wustl.edu, 12-06-2014)

(2) "The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day, W. W. Norton & Company, Feb 4, 2020”