Meetings are necessary, especially when companies are competing on talent and performance. However, research shows that meetings are often inefficient and ineffective. Poorly organized meetings cost an estimated $399 billion in the U.S. in 2019.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. We’ve all heard the complaints about spending too much time in meetings and how little gets accomplished. At The Building People, we knew there had to be a better way.
That’s why we implemented a simple formula that revolutionized our meetings:
Better Framework + Fewer Number of Contributors + Shorter Timeframes = Efficient, Productive Meetings
This practical approach gives you the simple formula for fewer meetings without sacrificing clear communication and productivity.
How to “crush” your next meeting:
Meetings are a necessary evil for conducting business and getting stuff done. Even if you think you’re not having team meetings, you probably are. They are just the drop-by meetings, “do you got a minute?” meetings, or “what are you doing right now?” meetings. If done well, you can save an incredible amount of time and get everyone working much more efficiently with one weekly team meeting.
Here are a few quick tips to get you there:
Same time, same place, same day of the week. Start and end the meeting at the same time and stick with that time. Create some sacred ground – a leadership meeting should only be missed if you are sick or on vacation.
Appoint a tangent sergeant. It’s easy to get off topic and start diving down rabbit holes. Rotate team members to call folks out when they begin to veer off the road.
Have a living agenda with an agreed-upon structure. Add issues & opportunities to your meeting agenda often. Skip drop-by conversations and add those topics to the meeting agenda. Google docs work great. So do to-do apps like Asana, Trello, Basecamp or Todoist.
Have actionable to-do’s that are assigned, agreed upon, and followed up on. Once you figure out how to deal with a problem, address an opportunity, or finish a project follow up on it and hold each other accountable.
Start operating with the Platinum Rule. “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them, not as you would have them do unto you.” Know how your peers and direct reports naturally communicate, process information & make decisions with the PI Assessment.
Practice makes perfect. Especially when processing issues. Spend time getting to the root of your company’s issues. You’ll realize that a couple of foundational changes will have a domino effect on the annoying little problems that keep popping up.
