According to our clients, one of The IllumiLab’s greatest skills is meeting management. However, there’s nothing particularly innovative or creative about how we facilitate meetings. I think it’s safe to say that our meetings:
- Set and accomplish objectives,
- Have and adhere to agendas,
- Start and end on time,
- End with a recap of what was learned and decided,
- End with action items with assigned parties and due dates, and
- Are generally documented within two business days.
We commit to these best practices, because, as consultants and project managers, each of our meetings must must advance the work, deliver value, and contribute to the our overall purpose or goal. Are yours any different? If you are charged with advancing your team’s, department’s, or organization’s work, and meetings are one way you accomplish that work, then meeting management is a mission-critical skill. Here are our top seven meeting management tips.
1. Only have a meeting if it is the best way to accomplish the task at hand.
Don’t let meetings become your unquestioned, default method for approaching your work. Sometimes there are other, better ways of advancing your work. If there is no specific task at hand, you probably don’t need a meeting. Instead, consider other ways to communicate or collaborate.
2. Write results-oriented meeting objectives.
If you can’t articulate the results a meeting is meant to accomplish, don’t have the meeting. A discussion topic is not an objective. “Discuss X,” “Review Y,” or “Share Z” are not results-oriented objectives. Why are we discussing, reviewing, or sharing? To what end? What are we supposed to do with what we hear and learn?
(Hint: If all your meeting agenda items are report-outs, ask yourself if that really requires a meeting. Instead, consider a mechanism like a discussion board or internal newsletter.)
When writing meeting objectives, consider verbs like identify, determine, decide, create, schedule, agree, prioritize, develop, plan, articulate, generate, evaluate, or assess, which will make the meeting’s purpose and value clear.
Whatever you do, don’t just discuss for the sake of discussing!
3. Create and share an agenda in advance.
If you want to make good use of meeting time, help participants prepare for them! Send a specific and focused agenda in advance – not a generic template of recurring discussion topics. Our agendas include:
- Lists or links to any related documents participants need to review
- Reflection or brainstorming questions to introduce discussion items and get people prepared to meaningfully engage (This is especially important for some learning styles and personality types. Give them time alone to process and organize their thoughts. This might increase participation.)
- Timed agenda items to give a sense of how much energy and attention should be devoted to each item
If you struggle with meeting high-jackers, you might consider reaching out to them in advance of the meeting and asking for their input or feedback on a draft agenda, so they know what to expect and so you can negotiate and plan for any additions they’d like to make.
4. Designate a facilitator.
If you want your meeting to stay on topic, achieve its objectives, have balanced participation, and end on time, you need a designated facilitator. This isn’t just someone who keeps time or takes notes. A facilitator is someone who takes responsibility for achieving the meeting objectives. We recommend facilitators have the following skills:
- Listening
- Rapid synthesis & framing
- Thoughtful questioning
- Empathy
- Humor
5. Recap and Confirm.
A facilitator who is skilled at synthesis can and should recap each agenda item before moving on to the next. What did we decide and why? How did we arrive at our conclusion? Is this what everyone heard and understood?
6. Plan Next Steps.
If you follow the tips above, you can set aside 10-15 minutes at the end of your meeting to thoughtfully plan next steps to make sure the work of this meeting translates into meaningful action and forward movement. Assign action items with due dates, develop plans to research and resolve loose ends, and schedule your next meeting date, if any (see Tip #1).
7. Document the meeting.
First, decide for whom you’re writing your summary/minutes/notes. Are they for people who were absent? Or people who weren’t invited? Do they need to make sense to someone unfamiliar with the work and the topic? Or are they only for “insiders”? Write your summaries so they can be used in a meaningful way by a specific audience.
If you have a solid agenda, you can do “File > Save As” and use the same document as a template for your notes. Document attendance, fill in the key ideas, and list action items. Whenever I don’t follow my own advice on this, I regret it.
The Bottom Line
A mentor once told me that, when planning projects, I should budget a half hour for planning and documentation for each hour of a meeting. To be sure, good meeting management is an investment. But maybe that’s why people marvel at the productivity of our meetings. I can’t think of many better ways to show your staff that their time and their ideas matter than to plan and facilitate purpose-driven, productive meetings. After all, who has time to waste?