Business English Skills: Planning a Meeting

In this article, you will

• learn how to plan your next meeting
• practice key vocabulary on the topic of business meetings
• learn when to use the structures “will have done” and “the … the …”

Newsmart Level 3 (B1+, TOEIC 389–550, TOEFL iBT 41–52, IELTS 4.5–5)

Published: on 22 June 2016

All the experts agree: meetings are a waste of time and money. Discussions go round in circles and never reach agreement. Brainstorming kills individual creativity. Conflicts involve only the loudest people in the room, while the most thoughtful participants drift off to sleep. And small talk is just a waste of everyone’s time. Why don’t we cancel all meetings and get on with some real work?

But maybe the problem isn’t so much with meetings, but rather with bad meetings. Maybe meetings can be useful and valuable after all, if they’re properly planned and chaired. Here are some questions to help you plan your next meeting. We’ll come back to advice for chairing your meeting in a later article.

1. Do you really need the meeting at all?

This is the first question you need to ask yourself. Could you share all your team’s news via email? Instead of a brainstorming meeting, why not collect everyone’s ideas on a collaborative document (e.g. a Google Doc), which people can read and complete in their own time? How about recording your presentation on your laptop and just sending everyone else the link?

These are all good suggestions, but they also reveal the true value of face-to-face meetings. A meeting allows you not just to tell people your news, but to check that they understand why it’s important. It gives other people a chance to react, to ask you questions, and to offer ideas and suggestions. Those things make a meeting better than an email.

Collaborative documents are great as long as you’re moving forward. They often generate wonderful ideas, and 90% of disagreements can be resolved quickly and painlessly. But the final 10% of disagreements … that’s where the system breaks down. Everybody writes comments and suggestions, and then replies to all the other comments with lengthy explanations of why they’re right and everybody else is wrong. People get frustrated and angry, and it takes forever. For that final 10%, a quick meeting can save everyone a lot of time and stress.

And what about a recorded presentation? Well, it’s a nice idea, but how can you be sure everyone will watch it? Will they give it their full attention? Will they understand it? The beauty of a ‘live’ presentation is that you can see your audience’s reaction. If they’re bored or confused, you can adjust your presentation to bring them back on board. This isn’t possible with a recorded presentation.

So what’s the solution? Try to complete almost all the background communication and discussion BEFORE the meeting. Make sure everyone understands the importance of dedicating time to this preparation work. Make it clear that if they fail to prepare properly, the meeting won’t work. Then use the meeting itself to check understanding, to clarify misunderstandings, and to resolve any remaining disagreements. This way, the meeting will be a lot shorter. It will stay focused on the things that can only be achieved face-to-face.

2. What will the meeting achieve?

Every meeting needs a clear purpose (or set of purposes). Instead of telling participants, “We need to have a meeting about X, Y, and Z,” write “We need to have a meeting in order to do X, Y, and Z.” Even better, tell them, “By the end of the meeting, we will have done X, Y, and Z.” If this is clear to all the participants, the meeting will stay on track. Even better, everyone will know when the meeting has achieved its objectives and they can go back to work.

3. How long will the meeting take?

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know for sure how much time you’ll need for your meeting. You might resolve all your issues in a few minutes; maybe you’ll uncover a whole new set of challenges and conflicts.

But it’s still absolutely essential that you set a time limit, and stick to it. This allows the participants to schedule things for the rest of their day — meetings with clients, family commitments, etc. So if you allow the meeting to overrun, you’ll spoil their plans and commitments. Of course, it’s fine to finish early! When you’ve achieved your objectives, and given everyone a chance to speak, call the meeting to an end. No-one has ever complained about a meeting that was quicker than expected!

A time limit also keeps people focused — they’re less likely to wander off-topic if the clock is ticking. And it will help you prioritize different items on your agenda, by ensuring the most important items are covered — and resolved — first, well before you run out of time.

And if you do run out of time? Stop the meeting and plan a different way of resolving the remaining issues — perhaps by email, or, if absolutely necessary, by scheduling another meeting. Resist the temptation to keep everyone there ‘just for five more minutes’ — that can easily turn into another hour.

4. Who needs to be there?

Remember that every participant is being paid for their time. So the more people you invite, the more it will cost. Even worse, more participants means more discussion, more opinions, and more disagreements. So keep the number of participants to an absolute minimum. Invite only those who need to be there — perhaps two, three, or four people. Collect other people’s ideas and opinions before the meeting, but make it clear that the meeting itself is just for a core team of decision-makers.

Photo credit: Handout for Getty

Originally published at www.getnewsmart.com.