3 steps to more efficient and useful meetings

How many meetings that didn’t have a specific agenda and started and ended late did you attend last week? How often do you attend meetings, without even knowing why you are needed there? How many meetings resulted in new ideas and truly relevant solutions? Meetings are an investment, and these steps will show the difference between a complete loss of time and effort and a valuable resource.

About 11 million business meetings take place daily, and one thing is clear: meetings are the backbone of business culture. When carried out properly, they inspire and stimulate the emergence of innovative ideas, and also lead to an increase in team performance and an increase in work results . And in the case of their inefficiency and uselessness, they worry us: we understand that precious time spent together was wasted irrationally and to no avail.
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Too many meetings fail to pay back the time and energy invested. In addition, they undermine our performance. Our meeting-saturated culture forces people to finish work at the most inconvenient time — early in the morning or late in the evening. And this affects the health, motivation and balance of work and personal life.

It's time to change something. It's time to conduct a revolution in the field of assembly.

Begin the change by questioning the value of each meeting attended, preparing for it and making sure that the right and only the right people are invited to the discussion.

1. Doubt the value of each meeting you attend.

Instead of automatically going to the next meeting, stop and think about whether your investment will pay off. Ask yourself:

• Will this meeting help me achieve my goals ?
• How consistent are the meeting objectives with the company's strategic priorities?
• What could be my contribution?
• Will anyone notice my absence?
• Will this meeting energize or pull all my strength out of me?
• Will this meeting be a retelling of 5 previous meetings I have been at?
• Is attending this event the best use of my time at the moment ?

Remember, every time you say something “yes,” you give up something else.

2. The success and effectiveness of the meeting depends on your planning.

As you prepare for the next meeting, ask yourself these questions:

• Why do we need this meeting?
• What is its purpose?
• Is it an informational gathering or is it aimed at making decisions, fixing problems, brainstorming, strengthening the team or building skills / instructions? Or is it a combination of several listed components?
• What do I want to achieve as a result of the meeting?
• Is there an alternative way to get the same outcome?
• If a meeting is necessary, what is the ideal format to achieve your goals: personal meeting, virtual communication, or combining these options?
• Who needs to attend a meeting?
• What information do I need from participants?
• What do visitors need to know or finish before the meeting so that the intended results are achieved?
• What are my expectations regarding the preparation and actions of the participants? How to convey these wishes?
• How long should the meeting ideally continue in order for the goals to be achieved?

Use the answers to these questions as a guide for planning and preparing your next meeting.

3. Invite the right people and the right people.

There are 4 types of meeting participants : leader, advisor, expert and performer. Based on these data, start thinking about who should be invited to the meeting.

• A leader is a person who has the right to make decisions.
• The adviser has the levers and connections in the organization necessary for the propaganda and dissemination of decisions taken and initiatives implemented.
• The expert is a specialist who has the knowledge, skills and qualifications to provide the information necessary for decisions and to create plans for their implementation.
• The performer has the knowledge, skills, resources and the right to do the work discussed during the meeting.

At the ideal meeting are representatives of each of these types. Of course, one person can combine many roles, however, sometimes the presence of not one but several people of equal status is required. For example, to implement the complex project discussed at the meeting, you may need three performers.

To determine who really should attend the meeting, ask yourself:

• What is the outcome of the meeting?
• The presence of which members of the organization is necessary to achieve the task?
• Who is the leader?
• Who plays the role of advisor?
• Who will be an expert?
• Who will be the performer?
• Are there people who are not scheduled to be invited to the meeting, but who in the past attended similar meetings? If so, how can I explain their absence in this case?

If the meeting does not have the right people, it will not work, and the time of all the participants will be wasted. Invite the right and only the right employees!

For the start of the revolution in the field of meetings does not need a leader. Any person who has decided to do something differently can start it, and then explain to his colleagues and teammates why a different approach is needed.

37% of the time employees spend at meetings. Therefore, deciding to lead a revolution in the assembly sphere, you not only guarantee that the investment in the form of time and effort will pay off considerably and noticeably, but also gives your team the opportunity to do the job that is conducive to business growth, which it does well for, and for which were hired.

PS We recommend another article on the topic - 3 people who can reduce the productivity of meetings to zero .

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult .