One of the biggest complaints I hear is that meetings are a waste of time. Often, that is a valid assessment… and time can be very expensive. In corporate America you can look around the table and tally the dollars by number of billable consultants, management team members and individual contributors, effectively putting an hourly rate on the meeting.

In a non-corporate setting it may be more difficult to put a price tag on the meeting, but it doesn’t change the fact that the participant’s time should be considered incredibly valuable, particularly if they are giving it to you with no expectation of monetary reward.

So how do you show your organization that you value their time? By running an effective meeting. There are the four important elements to an effective meeting:

1. A prepared, detailed agenda
2. A note taker
3. Action items with names and due dates
4. Published meeting notes sent to all invited attendees

Meeting Planning

How much time do you take in planning the meeting? That really depends on the meeting’s purpose. My motto is that preparation time should be at least equal to the time required to conduct the meeting. That may seem like quite a lot of additional effort, but when you consider the value of the time of the people in the room, it is worth it. The primary way to prepare for a meeting is to create the agenda. Other prep items may include

• Pre-selling an idea to a key decision maker (sometimes jokingly referred to as the pre-meeting to discuss the meeting… about the meeting…),
• Gathering and distributing background information,
• Coordinating participant’s schedules and
• Putting together a presentation.

One challenge that arises is distracted participants a meeting, especially with the popularity of texting, emailing and updating your social networks by phone. Unfortunately, the more influential the team member, the more likely they are to get distracted. This is all the more reason to plan your meeting thoughtfully – to ensure maximum engagement of the participants. Another tip is to have “courteous meeting” guidelines posted in the conference room… people will read them while they are waiting for everyone to arrive.

The Agenda

The agenda is a very useful tool to keep a meeting on target and should be more detailed if the meeting needs to be closely managed (such as a presentation.) At minimum an agenda should include the purpose of the meeting, the expected attendees and a bullet list of items to discuss.

Other Agenda tips:

• Put a time next to each item for discussion so people can gauge how well the meeting is progressing in real time.
• Assign a moderator/lead next to each agenda item – this helps distribute ownership among a group
• Publish an agenda ahead of time so the team can prepare as necessary
• Leave space after each item for notes and space at the bottom of the page for action items

What is the purpose of the meeting? The best meetings are those where decisions are made. If your meeting doesn’t include decision making in it, then you need to make sure that you have some clear goals that you want to achieve by having the meeting. The attendees of the meeting should be those that are making the decisions or influencing the decision makers. Be careful of meetings that are strictly status updates unless it is part of a stakeholder communication plan, as these are often the ones where people ask “Did we really need a meeting for that?

Detailing the items to discuss

One way to keep a meeting on track is to detail the discussion points. This can drive the direction of the discussion, keeping it from drifting to un-chartered waters. Use the parking lot technique to minimize the time spent on off-topic thoughts.

The Note Taker

Some people think that being the secretary or the scribe is diminutive or secondary in importance to the facilitator. Reconsider that thought… One of the most influential people in the meeting is the one that is taking notes … because that person can influence the way history is written. It also gives you an opportunity for active listening. The note taker has the power to add a lot of clarity to a discussion.

“I want to make sure I captured this correctly so let me rephrase what I think I heard you say…”

To that point, select the note taker with care as that person can provide valuable counter balance to strong personalities in the room. The note taker is listening to document action items, decisions, pros/cons and other valuable input that will be added to the detailed agenda and sent out to the attendees later as meeting minutes.

Action Items

Meetings are catalysts for action and to really gain traction, the tasks need to be assigned to people with expected due dates. This may sound obvious, but often times it isn’t done – and people walk away from a meeting without a clear understanding of why they were there or what they are supposed to do.

• Add the status of previous action items to the agenda as the first point to cover
• Beware of meetings where all the action items fall in the lap of a single owner – that spells trouble. It could me that

- There wasn’t a need for a meeting

- The team may not be fully engaged in the success of the endeavor

- The wrong people may be in the meeting

- There wasn’t enough preparation done to achieve the goals

Follow Up

Aside from decisions and brainstorming, meetings generally are not where the work is done. Without follow up in between meetings, you risk your meetings becoming “status updates” or worse, repeats of the previous meeting. By having action items with due dates sent out in your follow up meeting minutes, the whole team knows who is accountable for each item. Have the follow up meeting in a timeframe that allows for some of the action items to be completed.

Final Thoughts

A meeting well executed is a sign of strong leadership. In these economic times it makes sense to demonstrate your leadership capabilities in every way you can. Our communities and organizations need leaders at the helm for us to effectively do more with less. The satisfaction that accompanies a meeting that achieves its goals will energize the team and demonstrate that their time is valued.

Have you ever noticed that the longer you go without communicating, the more suspicious you become?

Example:  You have good friends that you hang out with on a regular basis.  You stop by for drinks, share an appetizer, go to the theatre.  Somehow you look back and realize that three months have passed since you last hung out.  You start to wonder… did I say something to upset them?  Was it our turn to pay the bill at dinner and we forgot?  Have we been replaced by more hip friends?

The same thing happens when there is a void of communication across an organization or between peers, but the void will be filled even more quickly with rumors, ill-will or misconceptions.

Example: An advisory committee meeting has been canceled with no explanation as to why.  The next meeting was scheduled out 2 months - perhaps due to a conflict or maybe for some other reason.  Some team members start to wonder if funding for the project is uncertain.   An advisory board member assumes that the project is running behind or is too disorganized to pull together a presentation.  People start gossiping over the water cooler and suddenly a rumor starts that the project isn’t on track, the project manager may get fired and the funding may be revoked.

Without consistent communication and open dialog about the issues, further mis-communication can ensue.  Somebody shares what they think is great news, but because the recipients of the information don’t have a context for the information, they feel like they have been intentionally kept “out of the loop.”

We see it in all types of relationships… from extended family to friends to co-workers and official teams.  Sometimes it is just inconsistent communication, other times there is an elephant in the room.  The solution?  Consistency and outreach.

In formal project management, a document called a communication plan is drafted and adhered to.  There are also mechanisms put in place to manage the elephants… generally called issue and risk logs.  Team utilization of these tools in a consistent manner is the responsibility of the project manager.  Communication plans document the frequency of steering committee meetings (and the format used to convey the appropriate information.)  Status reporting expectations are also conveyed in the plan.  Even if a formal steering committee meeting is not scheduled, the documentation is sent to the appropriate people to ensure that the communication deliverables are completed.

In the non-project world, successful communicators still make sure that they reach out to their friends and family members on a regular basis.  I make sure I call my parents every weekend and see my brother on Tuesday.  You use social networking tools and email to keep in touch with friends and neighbors, call your friends to chat and make plans for the weekend.

One risk to the virtual office is that the lack of face-to-face interaction can result in anxiety that is inefficient at best.  When you go several weeks between meeting with your boss or your client, a fear often develops… are they still seeing the value of my work?  Is there something going on at the office that I should know about but don’t?  On the flip side, people at the office may wonder if you are working diligently.  Regular status calls and consistent face time at the office certainly can minimize the problem.

Sometimes communication can be an uncomfortable endeavor.  Usually you find a communication medium that you are most comfortable with (mine is writing, other people prefer the phone and others want to meet in person.)  Whatever way you communicate best, use that method as much as possible to keep connected and fill the void.  If the void already exists and is filled with negativity… sometimes a planned out, face to face meeting is the best approach to clearing up those pesky misconceptions and suspicions.