Have you ever been in meetings where you have wondered what the speaker is talking about? If you’re like many of our clients, 70% of the meetings they attend is a waste. Imagine what you could do if you had that time back.
Here are some ways you can stop wasting your meeting time.
1. A GOAL-oriented AGENDA is essential. Each attendee should quickly be able see the agenda and understand why it is important. There is no “Software Update” or Johnson Project on the agenda. These are too vague and don’t tell what or how about these items.
2. Don’t “Share” meetings, but “Outcome” them. Stop sharing information. Meetings are a chance to bring together great minds and to share our collective wisdom. It is possible for a meeting to be used only to disseminate information. Emails can do this. People stop listening when they are being talked at. Here’s the acid test: If it seems like you’re only partially listening, and waiting for your turn to “update” your team, then you are running “Sharing Meetings” instead of “Outcome Meetings.”
3. Encourage healthy debate. Meetings aren’t about consensus. Sometimes you may need to engage in healthy discussion. It’s important to keep the discussion focused on the end result and not on personal issues. We spend time in our Flagship managing Your Message program sharing a three-step process to have healthy discussion and not get too involved in the defense.
4. Always start on time and always finish on time. Make sure people know that your meetings are short and to the point. If people know you respect their time, they will be more likely to attend. Don’t apologize if someone is late. Just keep going.
5. Recap Specific Actions to Take. All discussions should end with dates and times. You can’t say “Next week, we will examine…” because the brain doesn’t stop working “next week”, so it doesn’t trigger any action. “By December 15th, we will have the total number of attendees and the first draft ready for review by everyone.” The brain is stimulated to take immediate action.
Take action: Declare that you will not participate in or run SHARE MEETINGS any more! Outcome Thinking(r), we’ve seen clients increase productivity by more than 25% and have higher execution rates because they are focused on the outcomes and not just the steps.
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