"Meeting." That little seven-letter word is to most of us a "four"-letter word. There is no other word that I know of that can heat up the emotional thermometer faster.
We all have a love/hate relationship with meetings. We hate to go to them. We love to get out of them. We often come out of most meetings breathing the words, "That was a waste of time and of money!" Consider the expense. Eight people in a one-hour meeting is one man-day of work. If you call eight managers together, the cost of that meeting can be $300 or $5 per minute.So why do people keep "calling" meetings? (I have sure called a lot of meetings by words that cannot be written here.) Why are most meetings mostly unproductive? Why do they even exist? Why are most well-intended meetings poorly attended (mentally and physically)?
Some of the typical explanations for meetings include words like "communication," "report and evaluate," "inspire," "brainstorming" and "necessity." The truth is that while these are all good reasons, they are not necessarily reasons to call a meeting.
First, most meetings should not take place (in the first place or any place). There is simply no good reason for them. The person calling the meeting has acted out of desperation or ignorance by using the meeting as the wrong vehicle for the intended purpose.
Second, all meetings are too long. This may seem rash, but the next time you sit in a meeting, just mentally calculate how much "meat" was in the meeting. This is the reason most of us come late to meetings. In fact, I challenge you to find a meeting that isn't too long and I will tell you that someone woke you up just as you were getting into a good solid sleep.
Third, most meetings do not fulfill the purpose for which they were intended. In fact, most meetings don't have a clearly defined purpose or goal. And if there is a clearly defined purpose, that purpose usually gets modified in the middle of the meeting.
This raises some interesting questions about meetings. Why should we have meetings? How do we make meetings work? Are there better alternatives?
When should we have meetings and how do we make meetings work?
Meetings can be productive. They can communicate rather than debilitate, inspire rather than expire, direct rather than protect. But the rules of quality meetings must be followed explicitly. I call these rules my "never" rules.
1. Never call a meeting when other means or methods can be used. Meetings should be called only when there is clearly no alternative. (I will talk about alternatives later in the article.)
2. Never call someone into a meeting who doesn't really need to be there. An axiom to this rule is never let a person stay in a meeting who does not need to be there.
3. Never call a meeting without a clear agenda, including time, place, participants, objectives and the length of the meeting. Also, the agenda should be sent to the participants before the meeting starts.
4. Never start a meeting late. Begin even if all the participants are not there. Let people who have the courtesy to be there on time know that you are not going to let the latecomers waste their time.
5. Never stray from the agenda. If important items arise, sideline them until the agenda is complete. If there is time left, address non-agenda items. If no time is left, defer the items.
6. Never conduct a meeting without someone designated to take minutes of the meeting. If it isn't written down, it won't happen.
7. Never leave a meeting without action assignments clearly defined and delegated. Don't let the mystical "they'll" do it or "someone" should do it or "let's" do it." Those items will never get done.
8. Never let one person dominate a meeting. Every participant should be heard.
9. Never hold a meeting wherein there is constant talking. Always have some "quiet" time, even for a few minutes when thinking occurs. Most of us have a difficult time thinking and speaking at the same time.
10. Finally, never go past the meeting's scheduled ending time. A meeting that goes over time was probably a failure from the beginning.
Are there better alternatives to meetings?
Some of the best alternatives to meetings that I know about are surprisingly simple. Let me suggest a few.
1. Rather than calling a meeting, do some thinking on your own. Explore alternatives in your mind. Look at your processes and perform measurements to gather data. Do some visionary imaging. Meetings don't create ideas, people create ideas.
2. Communicate, explore, instruct, direct, inspire and evaluate on a one-on-one basis. Talk to people individually and specifically. Dissect large projects or problems into pieces and talk to people responsible for the pieces individually. Bury your ego and squelch your desire to talk to a lot of people all at once. If you feel an overriding desire to talk to large groups, consider the ministry.
3. Use electronics like E-mail or voice mail to communicate general information. This will allow people to digest information when it is convenient and they can give it full attention. Don't, however, use this as a means of not talking to people.
4. Give people enough authority to do their jobs without interference. People do work and accomplish goals. Meetings don't do work. Empowered people tend to spend less time in meetings and more time doing real work.
Habits are hard to break. Like dieting, cutting out meetings is not easy. So take a leaner approach to meetings. Substitute alternatives. And if you absolutely must have a meeting, use the "never" rules to make every minute of that meeting count.