How to Boost Your Productivity Managing Meetings Like a Pro
We all have meetings all the time. More than we’d like.
Usually, most of them end to be completely useless. But still, we do.
And we are destroying our productivity.
Why?
The only one good reason to make a meeting
Yes, I am sure, only one.
TO MAKE DECISIONS. GOOD ONES.
This is the only valid reason to move out people from their actual work to meet in a room for some time -which it’s always a lot of time.
Sadly, there are other common reasons that are NOT valid ones:
- Boredom
- To spread responsibility of decision making
- To provide a false feeling of democracy
- To feel important
- …
So, if making decisions is the only valid reason, how can I do it well?
It’s far more obvious that what you may think.
As making decisions is the objective, we need to have the necessary items to be able to make decisions. Which are:
- You need to know what you need to decide. Yes… Captain Obvious.
- The person or people who have the authority to make the decision must be in the room.
- All other people that have useful information about the topic must be in the room too.
I wanted to put a ten point list of items but actually…
You need to know what you need to decide
It’s very hard to decide about abstract ideas and feelings.
Moreover, it’s a waste of time.
That’s why any meeting should have an agenda.
This agenda should have all the topics very clear, and also what to expect from each one.
Also, it should include any relevant information about each topic. For example, if you are deciding between two web designs, the agenda should include both designs, and maybe numbers about conversions or any other relevant information.
This agenda should be provided to relevant people -the ones who are going to be in the meeting- with enough time to analyze it. Refuse to be in any meeting if you don’t have time to review the information.
The person or people who have the authority to make the decision must be in the room
It makes no sense to be in a room discussing for hours if the guy who can make the decision is not there. It’s a waste of time. Again.
Don’t plan any meeting without inviting the person or people who has or have the authority, or at least who can go and talk face to face with the one who has it.
Remember: the objective of a meeting is to make decisions.
All other people that have useful information about the topic must be in the room too
Here you are going to decide wether this is a healthy meeting which will have decisions as outcome or if this is going to be a massive waste of time.
All relevant people must be in the meeting. No more. Not a single person more than needed.
Every human being is ready to give an opinion all the time for all kind of topics. But not all opinions are equally important.
Don’t invite not relevant people to meetings.
Please, don’t do it. You are not trying to be nice or to make people feel important this time. There are times to do that, and many other ways. You are to make decisions.
Moreover, if you are invited to a meeting where you don’t feel needed, please, skip it. Although you could feel you are being rude, actually you are being nice not doing anyone lose time.
What should be the outcome of a meeting?
If you have read to here, you already know: a decision. Or many.
Is there anything more important than that? Actually yes: a written decision.
The last phase of a meeting should always be some kind of memorandum. Try to write it down any conclusion you have come to in the meeting. In the future, you want to remember this.
But don’t send an email! The memorandum will probably end archived. Save it in some documentation tool your company use.
I am not saying at all any meeting are a wast of time. But we all know which ones are.
Remember: clear agenda, needed people, decisions made, and memorandum.
You will boost your productivity!