End Pointless Meetings Forever
The discussion is supposed to be about the budget, but Anne from accounting wants to vent about the lack of heat in her office. Meanwhile, Ernie and Joe are consumed with back-of-the-room speculation about the probable outcome of the Super Bowl, and Francine, the meeting facilitator, is turning to Jim, who wants to let everyone know that his office is even colder than Anne's, and his workload is more onerous, too.
Everyone has been sitting for nearly two hours. Surreptitious Blackberry checking is increasing by the minute, a great many stomachs are growling, and virtually no one is giving even minimal thought to ways of trimming the budget.
Everyone has been sitting for nearly two hours. Surreptitious Blackberry checking is increasing by the minute, a great many stomachs are growling, and virtually no one is giving even minimal thought to ways of trimming the budget.
This meeting scenario is repeated thousands of times a day in offices across the land as the same people who as children could so easily sidetrack teachers and parents practice the art in conference rooms.
Bad meetings - terrible meetings - are epidemic. And the problem spills out beyond the meeting room. "Meetings are the reason that people are so resistant to teams," says Glenn Parker, a Skillman, NJ-based consultant specializing in corporate teamwork. Parker, who has just written Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings that Get Results, speaks on the subject at the Community Works Conference on Monday, January 30.
Parker, the author of 16 books, many on management topics, is a New York City native and graduate of the City College of New York (Class of 1959). He did graduate work in industrial relations at the University of Illinois and at Cornell, and then worked in the non-profit sector in Trenton in the late-1960s and early-1970s, participating in that era's war on poverty. He took that experience and began consulting, first to non-profits, and then to corporations.
He just finished a two-year project for the Coast Guard, working on team dynamics on its new ships. He has done other projects for the federal government, but does much of his work for pharmaceuticals, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson. He is currently doing a lot of work for Novartis. The co-author of his new book is Robert Hoffman, executive director of organizational development in Novartis' oncology business unit.
Parker and Hoffman first developed the book as a tool for Novartis personnel, and posted it on the company intranet. But they realized that it had broader applicability, and Parker's publisher, John Wiley and Sons, agreed.
"Who doesn't hate meetings?" exclaims Parker, who has been to his share. Asked to describe the worst meeting he ever attended, he had to think a minute before describing a really bad one by its most painful aspect. "It was four hours long," he says. "Without a break!" Adding to the misery of the time drain was the fact that the meeting's leader never got around to key agenda items. "He tried to rush through them at the end," he recounts. That left a number of participants not only enervated, but also disgruntled.
That meeting had been a grueling waste of time, but it could have been different. Here's how:
- Plan to accomplish something specific. Seinfeld had a fabulous run with a show about nothing, but a meeting needs to be about something. Something very specific. Everyone should know that they are gathered to choose three corporations to approach on partnership deals, or to trim $15,000 from the maintenance budget, or to pick a venue and a speaker for the upcoming fundraising gala.
"The single greatest meeting flaw," says Parker, "is that there is no clear purpose for the meeting. Every meeting should have a clear outcome."
- Draw up an agenda. "You have to have a track to stay on track," says Parker. The agenda is that track. It should be made up of points that lead directly to a conclusion. Written down, and passed out, it lets everyone know where the meeting is headed, and what mileposts it must pass.
- Halt detours quickly, but politely. Has there ever been a meeting that someone didn't try to hijack? Probably not. Keeping participants on the subject is harder than herding rabbits. One thing leads to another, and soon the budget meeting has become a complaint fest or a rambling series of anecdotes about whose office gets the least heat on frigid afternoons.
Parker's suggestion is to build a "parking lot" for all of those extraneous comments. Let the off-topic speaker know that his concern is important, and then gently bring the meeting back on track by saying that time is limited and the budget issue really must be decided. Tell everyone who tries to stray from the agenda that his issue will be discussed right after the meeting, or put on the agenda for the next meeting. Everything will be lined up in the "parking lot" respectfully, and will be addressed at a more appropriate time.
Many of the off-topic concerns are legitimate, says Parker. It is vital to keep the meeting on track, but it is also important not to be rude in doing so.
Give everyone a break. The optimal time span for a meeting is about one hour, says Parker. That is about the longest time that anyone can sit still and maintain concentration. In no case should a meeting stretch more than 90 minutes without a break.
During prolonged meetings breaks are essential. But, warns Parker, don't make them too long. Five minutes is fine. Go much beyond that, he warns, and people begin to lose focus. They start to make phone calls, check E-mail, and, if on their home turf, drift back to their offices.
Provide noshes. "Everyone loves food," says Parker. "There is a grand tradition of breaking bread." In addition to quieting rumbling tummies, food can be an ice breaker, he says. "People talk about the food. They talk about whether they're on diets, what diets they're on." In a group of strangers, it can be the one common element.
In choosing meeting food, think healthy, he adds. Avoid the Danish, and go for fruit, bottled water, or sandwich wraps. In addition to promoting good health, light food will help to keep participants awake.
Don't suffer in silence. If you find yourself at a meeting that is going nowhere fast, but taking its time in doing so, consider helping out. "What I would do," says Parker, "is ask for a five-minute break. I wouldn't say why, but I would pull the meeting leader aside and suggest that he pull the meeting back on track."
The poor guy, pulled every which way by bored or contentious meeting participants, might be grateful. Or not. But at least it's worth a try. After all, the unproductive afternoon you save will be your own.
---Kathleen McGinn Spring
Reprinted from U.S. 1, January 25, 2006, pp. 10-12. See http://www.princetoninfo.com/