Musings | Effective Meetings
“The longer the meeting, the less is accomplished.”
We’ve all been in meetings that run long or don’t follow an agenda, or lack a specific outcome. Today we explore tips on creating and running effective meetings and improving our focus overall.
Find the Right Time and Be Quick
Consider polling your colleagues to get a sense of the time of day they prefer to meet and their preferred length of meetings. Then try to set your meetings up around these preferences.
Avoid meeting first thing in the morning. Taking this approach accomplishes two things: 1) It gives people time to finish up meeting preparations in the morning (as opposed to staying late or rushing at the end of the previous day) and 2) It allows people to get a handle on their day before jumping into meetings.
Create an agenda and keep meetings to 25 minutes or 50-55 minutes so that there is time for short breaks for those who are moving from meeting to meeting (particularly for virtual meetings). Shorter sessions also help moderate cognitive load and may force the meeting to stay on task and focused on outcomes.
Schedule Meetings that Support Focused Work
Try practising Minimal Meeting Mondays, or if meetings are needed on Monday, schedule them later in the day. Doing so allows people to reset their week and get work done as they start the workweek. It also makes Fridays less stressful if there is a window to get a block of work done on Monday morning.
Block time in your calendar for you to do focused work; try not to leave your calendar wide open so it can be filled in with meetings. The blocked work time should be at a time of day when you can work well or when you like to get work done. When you do this (especially if you are a leader), you give others around you permission to do the same. Please note that there should be windows of availability for meetings, but blocking periods when you can work lets you plan for focused work and gives you a bit more control over your schedule.
Avoid scheduling three or more meetings in a row without a break.
Leave the meeting with a to-do list and assign tasks to specific people with timelines for completion and next steps.
If You Are Leading the Meeting
Be clear about the purpose of the meeting. Prepare your agenda and key points you want to bring up or critical questions you want to ask ahead of time. Make your points, but try to avoid rambling.
Listen actively and stay open-minded; try to avoid being defensive. Tactfully (and kindly) keep the meeting on task.