Entrepreneur and communicator

Meetings Suck. Fix Them With 6 Easy Steps.

I hate meetings.” The most frequently spoken words at Cerebra. Closely followed by “Let’s have a meeting.”

Meetings are widely considered an abominable waste of time. And yet, we still have them. We still have them because, despite all the wondrous technology at our fingertips, we haven’t (yet) developed a comparable replacement for real human interaction. The value of the verbal, non-verbal, and environmental cues of a face-to-face engagement is invaluable.

Meetings are necessary, but meetings are also undeniably broken. In a business like ours, where time is literally money, meetings that are surplus to requirements are nothing short of destructive.

Now before I come across as sanctimonious, we haven’t nearly fixed this problem ourselves. This article is as much confessional as it is suggestive. These are a few practical steps I’m taking (we’re taking), and I hope you can improve the value of your meetings with them in mind.

1. Have an agenda

As quickly as we’ve lost suits, ties, and oak-panelled walls, we’ve discounted the value of an agenda. Our management and board meetings follow a fairly strict agenda and are minuted accordingly. While I don’t think a comprehensive written agenda (as in a Word or Excel document) is critical for a successful meeting, starting every meeting with the words “we’re here to achieve X” or “the point of this meeting is to decide on Y” is. Begin with the end in mind, to quote Covey.

2. Vary time allocations

Parkinson’s law is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. If you allocate 60 minutes for a meeting, chances are you’ll fill it. If you allocate 30 minutes for the same agenda, I will wager you’d achieve the same results 80% of the time. So take it a step further and book 25 minutes for most of your meetings, be clear on what you want to achieve, and be amazed at how often you get there.

3. Limit attendees

I attend too many meetings with 8 or 10 people in attendance, the majority of which contribute very little value and derive even less. I believe it’s nigh impossible to make quick decisions or encourage accountability with more than 5 or 6 people in a meeting; it’s too easy to hide with more. Only invite as many people as you need to achieve your primary agenda.

4. Ditch the tech

This is a contentious one, especially considering my reliance on my phone and Mac, but leaving both outside a meeting on my desk has two notable effects:

Firstly, I find it much easier to concentrate on what is being said in the meeting, and I tend to add a great deal more value. I can actually listen, pick up on non-verbal cues, and retain what is said far better.

Secondly, because I’m addicted to my phone and Mac, I tend to want to move things forward. This results in significantly shorter meetings.

No devices in meetings is a big point for me. I joined EO in 2013, and we (8 entrepreneurs) meet once a month for four hours. We do not allow phones in that session at all. Short of an unthinkable family tragedy, there are very few other things that cannot wait 2 or 3 hours – we’ve just gotten into the habit of believing they can’t. The value of that non-tech time is astonishing.

5. Leave a seat open

Like all great business leaders, Jeff Bezos has his quirks. Reportedly one of his more effective characteristics is forcing staff to leave a chair open at every meeting to represent “the customer”. An excerpt from a Forbes article describing Bezos’ No. 1 Leadership Secret:

Jeff Bezos’ managers at Amazon find him formidable enough. But the figure that overwhelms their lives goes by the internal nickname ‘the empty chair.’ Bezos periodically leaves one seat open at a conference table and informs all attendees that they should consider that seat occupied by their customer, the most important person in the room.

What a great idea. This conscious and deliberate acknowledgement of the role the customer plays (unbeknownst to them) is not only pivotal to Amazon but is also clearly producing results. While the customer may not be as critical a consideration for every meeting, every meeting has an impact on someone outside the room. Leave a chair open to acknowledge them.

6. Encourage presence

While we seldom have a problem with meeting attendance at Cerebra, we frequently have a problem with meeting engagement. One way to make sure people have actually arrived and are indeed ready to tackle the task at hand (apart from my earlier tech-related tip) is to employ another simple trick I learned through EO. The “one-word barometer” encourages meeting hosts to begin the discussion by asking everyone to state one word to describe where they’re at.

*Cue Kumbaya melody*

Laugh all you like, this works. It forces everyone in the meeting to think for a second about what they’re feeling, where their attitude is at and avoids beginning meetings in an already exclusionary fashion. It helps to end the meeting the same way to examine how people have changed (or not). Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

What are some of the tips you have for more productive meetings?

4 thoughts on “Meetings Suck. Fix Them With 6 Easy Steps.

  1. I remember you telling us at CCMJHB that you only did 16-minute meetings. I love that. I see you’ve extended it to 25 mins now 😉 Man, I need to try this with our clients.

  2. So far the premise looks good. LOVE this stuff. John Cleese’s classic “Meetings Bloody Meetings” was so ahead of its time!
    Have “pocketed” it and will come back! 🙂
    Gotta say… I love the title. The “f” from “fix” right after “suck” makes for quite the headturner. 😉

  3. Thanks for the post Mike. A topic close to heart that I’ve been focussing on lately. I’ve already implemented a couple of your points since the start of the year and have seen great results. Having a clear agenda and leaving tech out are big wins for me.

    I use to find myself super distracted by my phone or mac while in a meeting. I use to think it was awesome how well I could multi-task crushing mail or client requests while in a meeting to save time, but I was missing out on crucial points being made in meetings. Now that I leave tech out, I find meetings 10 times more productive and valuable.

    This video isn’t only about meetings, but definitely in the same space and I think very valuable. Jason Fried on Why work doesn’t happen at work. http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work

    Another relative read I found by Nic Haralambous on the 25 minute meeting https://medium.com/@nicharry/why-25-minute-meetings-should-be-the-standard-b561390f917b

    Cheers

  4. Hi Mike. These are good points, but I would also suggest you look at David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” advice on the 5 reasons to have a meeting:
    1. Give information
    2. Get Information
    3. Develop options
    4. Make decisions
    5. Warm magical human contact
    One of more of the above for the agenda

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