You’ve probably seen the snarky memes about meetings saying, ‘This could have been an email.’
This is a common sentiment as it’s estimated 11 million meetings are held every working day and 71% of employees find them unproductive. According to FlowTrace, $37 billion is lost annually due to ineffective meetings.
While there’s no doubt some meetings could have been left to an email or phone call, others do call for face-to-face or virtual gatherings. Meetings serve as a time to clarify issues, strengthen team bonds, brainstorm and make decisions.
Making your company meetings more effective can reduce the belief within your team that meetings are pointless and save significant time within your organization.
Elements of Effective Meetings
Effective meetings should have a purpose. Before creating any meeting, determine what your goal of the meeting is as well as firm start and stop times.
Part of what makes so many meetings feel ineffective is the inclusion of parties the topic isn’t really relevant to their role. Be selective with who are involved with specific meetings and cognizant of their time. Would a summary of what was discussed in the meeting be more beneficial for that employee than having them listen in for an hour but have nothing to contribute? You can also ask your employees if they feel they need to be in certain meetings.
Also, meetings can only be useful if you have engaged attendees. You may have a handful of employees who are always willing to speak up, but unengaged team members will result in lackluster discussions and others multitasking in the background.
Worthwhile meetings should end with clear action steps to take afterward. Before the end of each meeting, make sure the participants know who has ownership of what next steps.
Set Meeting Expectations
As you evaluate your current meeting structure, discuss with your team what are some agreed-upon expectations you can use for meeting etiquette within the company.
For instance, if every meeting starts 10 minutes late as you wait for one person, maybe propose moving forward that meetings will start on time, and latecomers can join as they are able.
Another possible ground rule is for an agenda to be distributed at least one day before the meeting so team members can go in better prepared for what topics will be discussed.
Think through other pain points or ways you’d like meetings to stay on track to reach a set of expectations to hold your team to.
Appoint A Meeting Facilitator
Another way to make your meetings more effective is to assign a facilitator. This individual is responsible for establishing clear objectives, creating an inclusive environment, handling disagreements, and keeping the meeting on time.
A good facilitator demonstrates respect, is flexible, is open to feedback and encourages participation. Some of the methods to boost meeting participation include allowing everyone to speak and driving the conversation with open-ended questions.
The facilitator can also draw responses from more introverted team members by directly asking their opinions or thoughts on the topic.
When there is conflict in a meeting, the facilitator should seek understanding, hear people out and then propose a solution. The best way to prevent disagreements from escalating is to remain calm and cool. If an argument is going nowhere, one strategy is to invoke ‘ELMO,’ which stands for ‘Enough, let’s move on.”
By being more thoughtful with the planning and execution of your meetings, you can accomplish your goals while giving team members back more of their workday.
