Making Meetings Meaningful

Want to free up hours and hours for productive, strategic, proactive work activities?

Studies show that for every 20-minutes we spend planning and preparing for meetings, we save 60-minutes in rework down the line.

Why don't we consistently spend this critical 20-minutes?

So many people spend their days reacting to the intensity of their calendars. By rushing from meeting to meeting we tend to show up in meetings with very little clarity. Do we even know the purpose of every meeting scheduled on our calendar this week?

Without clarity about the purpose of a meeting, participants have little clarity about how decisions will evolve and resources will be allocated as a result of a meeting.

Worse, we have little understanding of our individual role in the context of this meeting.

To make meetings meaningful (and thereby much more productive) take 20-minutes prior to each meeting to get clear on these important issues:

1. What is the purpose of this meeting? Is it a standing committee, a team meeting or an ad hoc meeting for one purpose? Will decisions actually be made in this meeting? Will resources be allocated as a result of this meeting? Do I need additional data in order to be prepared to discuss issues from a strategic perspective.

2. What is my objective for this meeting? How might I move my related priorities forward during this meeting?

3. What is my role in this meeting? Am I the sole decision-maker? Am I there to add context or be briefed? Am I a member of a team that will drive solutions as a result of this meeting?

4. Do we have an official scribe for this meeting? Do we have a track record of documenting action items in a meaningful way that produce effective follow-up and real results?

5. Have I received an agenda for this meeting? Do the agenda items make sense, given the purpose of the meeting?

With only 20-minutes of preparation time, your meetings can be exponentially more effective. More importantly, meetings can be a key structure for building a corporate culture of transparency, alignment and accountability.

If you aren't strategic and proactive in preparing for meetings, you guarantee frustration and wasted resources in your very next meeting.

Your colleagues who have least amount of transparency about themselves will be disruptive by dominating the meeting and will drive the few, off-strategy outcomes.

It's your choice.

More Important Thoughts on Delegation

I wrote on delegation a few weeks ago. Here are blog posts from two thought leaders in the field of leadership development, Dr. Lois Zachary and Paula Singer. The Harvard Business Review wrote about this critical leadership skill for new managers on September 21, 2010. This is a hot topic for all of us.

Delegation That Works for Everyone

In my 35 year career, I've never met a leader who did not complain about the amount of time required and their own general lack of effectiveness in delegating. While I always empathize with their perception, I also encourage leaders to take the time, master this important skill, develop structures and create extraordinary results through others. Everyone benefits when this occurs; your customers, your engaged and empowered team and your growing organization.

When you, as a leader, choose to perform tasks by yourself instead of delegating to the appropriate person, you actually rob your own people of their potential. How can they grow professionally and aspire to greater roles of responsibility and accountability if you do not give them opportunities to experiment, learn and develop?

Further, if you do not delegate you become mired in details. These details distract you from adopting a more strategic perspective that is required to be an effective leader of a growth oriented company.

The key to delivering extraordinary results through others is transparency. If you can take the time to become clear on your desired outcomes and expectations in advance, delegation can be exponentially more successful. Specific metrics must be transparent, easily understood and shared among the entire team. You must define in advance how success will be measured. This ensures that the results can be delivered on time and on budget. While the results will meet your expectations, the method to drive to those results may differ greatly from your own, proven approach. This is key to growth. We must be open to new ideas and approaches in order to continually refine our processes.

Once you have gained a level of transparency, you must now be clear in your communication. Clear, complete and authentic communication requires setting aside time to share ideas, address concerns and mitigate the risk of misunderstandings. It requires a focused time when you and your people brainstorm potential solutions. It requires a 'safe to say' atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable voicing their concerns and ideas.

This kind of kick-off conversation is the first structure required to ensure successful delegation in a transparent environment. Other requirements could be periodic check-in conversations. If someone is not on a path to success wouldn't you want to discover that sooner rather than later?

The key to successful delegation is to build in transparency at every phase of the process. The results will be a higher quality product, more engaged employees who take ownership, and satisfied customers who are willing to pay a premium for your services and products.

Stay in this important conversation with your people. Don't let yourself be distracted. Everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, you are not yet at the end!