Blog, Insight 
No Comments ‘Meetings’ – A Revelation
It was a fine Sunday morning as recollected the course of my recent meeting at the Electronics Technology Park the other day. The thoughts made me squirm on the sheer inefficiency in which the meeting was conducted and concluded.
This meeting again had obviously failed to get the job done. In countless organizations, we have seen that meetings are scheduled back-to-back. They start late, lose focus, erupt in thought conflicts, accomplish nothing, do not chart the next line of action and ultimately leave no one accountable, making it all look like a farce only to be mentioned briefly in the action-taken reports.
An effective meeting is an art. An organization can be judged by the way it conducts its meetings. Consultants and management folks who step up to the meeting leadership role will have enormous influence.
I put myself in the shoes of the meeting leadership and thought on variety of mistakes commonly made by leaders in this position.
Is it necessary?
How many times we leave the meeting questioning the very necessity of the meeting? The leadership should really ponder on this before every meeting whether to have that meeting at all, whom to invite, what to put on the agenda, and how to win support or uncover objections in advance. One sure way of streamlining the meeting culture is to make sure that people attend meetings for a reason.
What’s the Agenda?
A plain agenda does help to set expectations, keep the meeting on track, and create ownership and accountability. Without an agenda, the meeting becomes a free-for-all turf. Participants cannot prepare in advance and consume time in catching up during the meeting. If left without an agenda, participants will veer off-track and there would be too many ‘meetings’ within the meeting. It all adds up to low morale and high frustration.
No pre-meeting communication?
The meeting leadership should ask questions, get feedback or buy-in ahead of time. Interacting with influential people who will attend helps the leadership to identify deeper issues and position these within the agenda. It is worth the effort to contact stakeholders and influencers to discuss options and reach agreement about an approach or action.
Is participation encouraged?
Discussions are effective only if they are able to tap employees’ collective knowledge. But here is the catch. Not all participants are equally expressive. Some are silent. The leadership should notice who is quiet and confront their silence for they need to be on the same page.
If the leadership is successful in guiding their participation, it helps to avoid the situation where few individuals may tend to dominate the conversation. Discussions should be stimulated by simple questions like: “What’s your reaction…?” or “How could we…?”
Are the customers waiting?
Customers, vendors and the other ecosystem partners hate to see their calls to you going unanswered. More so if they get back the routine excuses like “I was in the meeting’ or “Oh! my meeting got delayed..”
A big complaint about meetings is that they start late, end late, and waste time in between. The meeting leadership should mend this situation if it exists in the organization. People will be much happier going to a meeting and will participate more fully if they know their time will be respected and they will accomplish what they came to do.
Do you have a moderator?
The meeting leadership should moderate a meeting and weed out negative, personal attacks that poison the atmosphere and impede progress. The leadership should impart a culture where it is safe to express disagreement and issues are debated on their merit rather than personalities behind them.
The leadership should disallow any discussion from getting personal and should have a zero tolerance for personal attacks. Otherwise if the issues to go unresolved, it can damage the whole organization. Disruptive participants need to be dealt with directly and they should know that disruption is not tolerated. But disruptors should be allowed to speak their piece, within enforced time limits.
How many side meetings?
Side meetings, another problem in many meeting cultures, happen because they are tolerated or because meetings get sidetracked and/or run too long. If people are bored or restless, they start whispering, unaware of or not caring about being rude or how others see them. Meeting leadership should show their zero-tolerance for such disruptions as well.
Is there an outcome?
The fundamental objective in having a meeting is to gather enough inputs to either make a decision or get a consensus on a course of action. Consensus builds in accountability and helps ensure that people act on decisions. It does not imply an absence of conflict, but the resolution of conflict in a manner acceptable to a majority.
At the end of the meeting, the meeting leadership should communicate the outcome very clearly with all the factors in mind.
Where is the summary?
Meeting leadership should ensure that they summarize the meeting points, which means that they have the ability to listen well and provide a brief but accurate review of what has been said, including what’s unspoken. A meeting without a summary is like having no meeting at all.
It is human psychology that everyone wants somebody to lead. It takes a real leader to take up the role, accept it, and grow with it.
Effective meetings reflect the business culture within an organization and bring out the real differences within the participants – whether personal or professional. Professional differences give different insights into the issue and help push a right decision. This is beneficial to the organization. However, personal differences, if not tackled skillfully can damage the ethos of the organization and can have a long-lasting business impact in the marketplace.
Someone once told me: For a new employee to judge the character of his new organization, his participation in one major meeting is all that is required!
How we really wished that this participation was possible before joining the organization!
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