Game-Changing Insights on How Meetings Can Be Made More Productive

I often wonder how Scott Adams manages to hit the nail on the head when he illustrates meetings in Dilbert comics. His depictions prove the fact that these powerful tools of management are being misunderstood widely, often to the point of extracting deep sighs when announced. If you are in the same boat as me, you would know the frustration and agony of being a part of poorly conducted meetings. You would also know how a discussion that seems to go in circles (or on and on….) makes attendees talk more outside a boardroom than within it.

Given that most organized meets are no fun, 2000 managers surveyed for a report published in Industry Week claimed that they would rather find themselves somewhere else, doing something more fruitful. Yet another survey conducted by a project management company had also generated dampening results — more than 46 percent of 1,400 professionals felt that most meetings were unproductive and should be discouraged. I sincerely feel that, with meetings being an indispensable part of organizations and business work space, a lot can be done to make them more useful.

Many a times, when I convene Orgzit team meetings, I end up getting bored and grouchy faces across the table. So I decided to have a one-on-one discussion with Pavan Verma, my beloved brother and co-founder of Orgzit, on how can we get our team members more enthused about meetings.

And believe me; I think Dilbert will be more than happy with what we two came forward with!

A meeting that has a clearly defined purpose, with its objectives sketched out in the agenda beforehand, generally stands to accomplish more and ends on a productive note. Instead of adding agenda items such as “status updates” that are often referred to as time eaters, you must create a specific agenda and share it with all attendees prior to the meeting. An agenda list containing pre-defined objectives, and backed by materials and background information for the understanding of attendees would fetch altogether different and positive results.

Convene Functional Meetings with Clearly Stated Objectives

What agenda items?

So now every time I convene a meeting, I remind myself, “Nitin, gear up to include specific agenda items when you send out the notice for the meeting.”

Ideally, meetings should not be used for just sharing information that could have been passed via the intranet or collaboration software.

So meeting agendas sorted — Check!

At Orgzit, we typically have 3 types of meetings (out of the 4 described by Patrick Lencioni in his great book Death by Meeting).

• Daily check-in: These are quick (10–15 minutes) scrums to track progress and decide a plan for the day. We love Agile and try to follow its principles in every business function (not just product development).
• Weekly tactical meeting: This is typically a 1–2 hours meeting where we review and analyze the progress from the last week and plan our work for the next week.
• Strategic review and planning: This is a half-day meeting we have every month with all functional heads trying to brainstorm new initiatives for the next few months.

The invitees making it to the meeting room should be the ones who are ‘needed’ for getting work done, formulating strategies, announcing a change, or taking decisions. The absence of key decision makers or those in a position to steer the meeting into productive directions, can render the entire purpose of meeting up worthless. Additionally, if certain members feel that the topics for discussion have no relevance for them, or they themselves lack the skills to be of any assistance in the going-on activities, they are best left off the list.

Invite Selective People

Given this scenario, I thought about what my team at Orgzit should know before a meeting. As unknown faces are seldom welcome in board rooms and meeting, I thought everyone should receive an attendee list. And I did exactly that for a meeting we just had last Thursday.

Now everyone knows who all are coming for the meeting — Check!

Time counting helps in retaining the focus of participants and making meetings more efficient — I cannot agree more with this.

Let the Clock Tick Loudly

For instance, during last Thursday’s meeting, Kartik Dulloo, a new addition in our team, was made the time keeper. His responsibility was to see that participants adhered to the schedule circulated in the agenda so that all topics could be covered in the allotted time of sixty minutes; this is the standard time frame attributed to our successful meetings.

Moreover, for even better time tracking and management, an email containing the time allotted for each agenda item was circulated in advance. This information was also shared on a whiteboard by Kartik for all to see and maintain during the meeting. I firmly believe that starting and ending meetings on time, with a person serving as time keeper; can make the most boring of sessions more organized and relevant. There’s nothing like budgeting time on agenda items to channel the team’s collective focus on accomplishing the set goals!

Now you have a productive on-going meeting — Check!

Have you ever been part of a meeting where the discussion strayed away from the main point of discussion to an out-of-agenda item? I bet it was not what you attended the meeting for.

Don’t Let The Discussion Go Astray

My co-founder Pavan recently introduced a concept in our meetings that helps us stay on the planned agenda. I am referring to the use of a ‘ parking lot’ by the facilitator that helps in restricting a meeting within the boundaries defined beforehand. So, if an interesting ‘out-of-agenda’ point is raised by a participant, you can save the meeting from getting derailed by saying, “ Thank you for the inputs but as your point goes beyond the periphery of today’s discussion, let me add it to my notes and explore it in good time.”

Alongside, in case the meeting is being monopolized by a specific participant, it’s important for you as the organizer to be vocal and announce, “ Much as we appreciate your contributions, it is necessary to take inputs from others to make a decision.” Such ground rules, if set in the beginning, can prevent group functions from going astray.

Now you have the meeting following the agenda — Check!

Ban All Distractions

You would be surprised to know the number of times I have hit upon the nuisance of using smartphones in meeting rooms. They contribute little or nothing! Rather, they end up shifting my team members’ focus elsewhere.

So, you have a distraction-less meeting discussion — Check!

Major decisions are the outcome of productive meetings. However, it is common for attendees to come back from them with different interpretations, both right and wrong.

Keep Notes for Sound Follow-Up

I wonder what practices and rules you follow to ensure that your meetings are productive and urge you to share your opinions and ideas with me in the comments section. I am an infrastructure finance professional who found his true reckoning in trying to help teams and businesses enhance productivity for which I built SaaS information and task management software .

So I decided to draft an email, describing the accomplishments of the meeting along with an account of attendees, the tasks & responsibilities delegated, and assigned deadlines, to my whole team to communicate the smallest of details (and to avoid any miscommunication). It also helps me keep all participants on the same page and alleviates the concerns of ambiguities, if any.

Now you have a MOM that you can share with everyone- Check!

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on April 1, 2017.