Expert Tips To Make Meetings Faster
And More Focused
Meetings can be a
huge time suck, so we turned to the pros for their advice on how to make them
more productive.
If you think you have a lot of meetings
today, you're in good company. One Harvard Business School professor estimates
that there will be 11 million meetings
taking place today in the United States. The unproductive ones (an estimated
third) can cost a company an astounding amount of money. In a 2014 study of
time usage, Bain & Company found that just one meeting of
mid-level managers per week could cost an organization as much as $15 million
per year.
In an effort not to waste any more time—or money—on fruitless
meetings, we’ve pulled together some pro tips for making any meeting more
productive.
The antidote to the "weekly staff meeting at 11:00 a.m."
is often a simple question: What are we supposed to accomplish?
Donald Kirkpatrick, past president of
the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) told Fast
Company in a previous interview to ask the organizer if the reason to
get together is any of the following:
"To generate ideas, to make a decision, to get buy-in and
create ownership, to answer questions about an upcoming initiative, or if the
goal is to complain (rarely done best in a group setting), to sign off on
something that’s already been decided (a waste of time and dignity), or when an
email or phone call would suffice (costing everyone productivity)."
Jeff Bezos is famous for his two pizza rule for calculating the number of
people who should be invited to a meeting—never have more than can be fed with
two pies.
The reasoning goes beyond letting any employee go hungry. Meetings
with a large group tend to get bogged down. As they learned early on at Square,
"decision atrophy" sets in when people start worrying about
"getting buy-in from dozens of people and getting approvals three rungs up
the ladder." Smaller groups are more efficient, especially when the right
decision maker is sitting at the table.
Latecomers are distracting and
disruptive. So the staffers at TINYpulse, an employee engagement software
provider are required to show up at a daily staff meeting that starts at 8:48
a.m. "It's eliminated tardiness almost completely," communications
manager Neal McNamara told Fast Company. "It's strange, but at
8:48, everyone in our office seems to rise simultaneously and move toward our
meeting area. There's definitely a Pavlovian aspect to the odd meeting
time."
Those who do come late should have to pay some penalty. At Cvent’s
Inquisium division, tardy attendees have to sing for a seat at the table.
"The biggest downside is that it has been so effective, we rarely get the
opportunity to make anyone sing these days," says vice president Darrell
Gehrt.
To keep people on track, many companies
have adopted setting a timer so the meeting has a clear end when the bell
rings. Harvard Business Review also has a cost calculator so attendees
can make a clearer connection between time and money.
SEATING ARRANGEMENTS, OR LACK THEREOF
Once you’ve got them in the room, it’s
important to remember that circles are more conducive to collaboration. Sitting
in rows can make people more competitive, according to a study from two Canadian business
schools.
Better yet, free those bottoms and take
the chairs away completely. Stand-up meetings serve a dual purpose: Keeping
people on their feet is healthier (sedentary death syndrome avoided) and it
cuts the time. We humans prefer to sit and listen or converse, so the longer we
stand, the more antsy we get. Science found that standing groups are more
fired up to work together, too.
Distraction is calling, especially when attendees can hide behind
a screen. Handwritten notes, though, can be a boon for attention and retention
of what’s being discussed. A study of students who took notes by hand vs. those
who typed found that those using pen and paper had better conceptual recall.
Lots of meetings aren’t productive because the agenda is merely
discussed instead of being turned into action. One suggestion to combat this
wasted time is to change the items into questions.
Smart Leaders, Smarter
Teams author Roger Schwarz suggests:
·
Don't write: "Discuss video schedule"
·
Do write: "When will videos be completed?"
This way, everyone knows what the goals are and can work on
meeting them.
LYDIA DISHMAN
http://www.fastcompany.com/3061604/expert-tips-to-make-meetings-faster-and-more-focused
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