10 Steps to Get What You Want Out of a Meeting

How many of you walk into a meeting and leave an hour later feeling unfulfilled?

Research shows that collaboration often leads to success, and that collective intelligence leads to far greater successes than any individual’s performance.

If success often requires collaboration, and collaboration requires meetings then why do so many of us find meetings to be a complete waste of time?

At RL, we know that time in healthcare is a valuable resource — in the spirit of starting the year off on the right foot, here are some of the strategies that our project management team uses to guarantee getting the most out of your meetings.

1. Start with a purpose

A meeting without purpose is a precarious thing. A sure sign of a promising meeting is when everyone in the room knows why they’re there and what the agenda is — before any conversation starts!

Does the meeting you’re planning not have a clear purpose? Consider whether this means that the meeting is unnecessary, or whether it’s a sign that you have more homework to do before you send out the calendar invite.

Take advantage of your meeting invitation and use the body to share the goals and objectives of your meeting (and any prep or pre-work you expect others to prepare ahead of time).

2. Take your role seriously

As a meeting organizer, your job is to clearly outline the goals and expectations for the meeting and to keep everyone on track with a well-organized agenda.

But as a meeting attendee, you have a defined role, too:

• Read the meeting agenda
• Recognize your strengths and weaknesses
• Be present and participate
• Understand that each team is different — use these varied expectations

3. Keep it focused

You can have the best meeting objective in the world, but if the right people aren’t in the room, you won’t achieve your goals. While collaboration is a cornerstone of success, it also comes at a cost — poorly thought out meetings can create aggravation, involving too many people has a financial cost, and too many meetings means your team can’t focus on the work that needs to be done.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Who really needs to be there? Keep the group focused — you can always distribute minutes or pull or loop additional people in later.
• Can this meeting be shorter? Or consider alternate formats — standing meetings or huddles can be a great way tool to keep things short and effective.

If you’re a person who’s not invited to the meeting don’t be offended! Harvard Business Review has a some great tips on how to respond when you’re left out of an important meeting.

But why do some meetings go better than others?

It’s an important question — and unfortunately there’s no easy answer. Many factors can contribute to a successful meeting. Recognizing these factors and managing around them (when possible) can reduce the changes of a meeting flop.

One tool that we find particularly useful is Tuckman’s Team and Group Development Model:

The most critical takeaway from this model is understanding that you can’t expect teams to perform exceptionally well when they first come together. Teams will naturally encounter road blocks when they first get to work — these rough patches are natural and don’t mean that your team won’t ultimately be successful. What’s key is to support your team through these initial rough stages until they reach the upswing of the “norming” stage.

Try to recognize the differences that your team members bring to the table, understanding that people approach problems differently. We all have different skills and assets — it’s the combination of these elements that make strong teams and collaborations. Establishing norms can be a great way to bring different types of thinkers and various personalities together. Think about cornerstones like:

• Setting up meeting formats
• Establishing goals, objectives and context
• Embrace your role as the facilitator — including calling out specific attendees to participate

In summary

Meetings can be one of the most powerful tools for collaboration — but only if they’re planned thoughtfully. To help you get what you want out of a meeting (and to accomplish something along the way) follow these ten steps:

1. Why are you holding a meeting?
2. What is the purpose?
3. What is the best format for the meeting?
4. Who needs to be invited?
5. What are their roles and who can help make decisions?
6. Distribute the agenda and highlight any pre-work.
7. Account for personalities and facilitate or have the session facilitated.
8. Respect people’s time. Start and end on time and keep it moving.
9. Make time to summarize and determine next steps with the meeting participants.
10. Document and distribute next steps.