The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Meetings
Zoom fatigue is real. But the problem isn’t Zoom. It’s that your meetings are terrible.
Be honest: when was the last time you declined a meeting when you didn’t have another conflict on your calendar? The truth is, unless we have a conflict, we reflexively accept almost every single meeting invitation. We do this because it makes us feel important, we fear missing out, we believe our attendance is required, or we haven’t empowered others. Too many meetings are the corporate equivalent of a pacifier. Meetings should be an event, not our default work mode.
Here’s how to free yourself from the tyranny of too many unproductive meetings.
Habit 1: Respect Your Time and That of Others
The first step to taking control of your calendar is recognizing how many meetings are unnecessary. If you see a snake, kill it. Don’t appoint a committee on snakes! And similarly, don’t be fooled by the “update” meeting, where each member of a group gets together to share how things are going and what he or she has been working on. These are weather reports, and they’re a waste of time; the reality is, people read faster than they speak, so if all you need to do is broadcast information, write it down and let it serve as the foundation for a more productive session focused on one of 5 themes:
- Solving a problem / making a decision
- Brainstorming
- Planning
- Reflection / review
- All hands on deck (generally reserved for important news and team building)
Be judicious with your time and that of others. Only schedule a meeting if you can produce a high quality outcome — like a key decision, a plan or a new idea — faster than individuals working alone. Just as importantly, only accept a meeting if you are a decision maker, can add value or you will emerge smarter.
Habit 2: Arrive Prepared
Amazon has a strange but incredibly effective meeting culture. Years ago, Jeff Bezos eliminated PowerPoint presentations and instead required the meeting organizer to produce a detailed 6 page narrative to be shared with each participant. The group would then begin the meeting by silently reading the narrative together for several minutes; with its framing of the ideas to be discussed, supporting data and potential solutions, the narrative ensured everyone began on the same page and set the table for a productive discussion. According to Bezos, it’s odd to begin a meeting quietly reading together, but not only does the practice produce deeper discussion and better decisions, but the act of preparing a narrative ahead of time forces the writer to have a clearer understanding of the situation or problem to be solved.
Now, I’m not advocating that every meeting begin with a 6 page narrative, but you should absolutely hold your team accountable to producing an agenda or circulating salient information in advance. And likewise, if you’re invited to a meeting without an agenda, ask if there are any documents to review beforehand and then show up prepared to add value.
Habit 3: Turn Off and Tune In
I can’t stress this enough: eliminate distraction. Get rid of your devices, even if you have to physically place your phone in another room for 30 minutes or an hour. Too often I let my ADD and my phone divert my attention — I tell myself it will just be for a second, but it’s a lie, and it’s disrespectful. Being distracted is easier than ever in this era of Zoom, but if you’ve made the decision to attend or hold a meeting, then you deserve to give it your focused attention. And for the love of God, stop doing email at the same time. I get that we’re all busy and sometimes we feel we have nothing to offer on a particular topic and can use those moments to scan our emails. But don’t do it, especially if you’re the boss. Be engaged and be focused and if you are, you can do the following…
Habit 4: Compress the Clock
Ask anyone who has ever planned a wedding how long it takes, and they’ll tell you it takes the entire length of the engagement. A similar phenomenon occurs in almost every meeting; the group subconsciously steers the meeting to finish within a minute or two of its scheduled duration. So start scheduling shorter meetings: if you’ve set a meeting for 1 hour, the odds are good you can do it in 30 minutes. Perhaps that 30 minute meeting can be done in 15 minutes, standing up. Remember, if you’ve properly prepared ahead of time and your participants have done their part to read whatever information you’ve previously circulated, there should be no need to rehash or explain the situation. Instead of starting cold, your meeting is already warm and you can efficiently dive into the intellectual work needed to make good decisions or effective plans. .
Habit 5: Small Groups Move Mountains, Big Groups Create Them
A meeting should have no more people than can be fed by 2 large pizzas. More than that, and you’re inviting groupthink, and groupthink is what happens when you’re trying to please everyone and offend none. It is the enemy of bold thinking, so make sure you have the right people in the room — and no more and no less. Small is nimble. Never underestimate what can be accomplished by a small group of laser-focused and empowered people(1).
Finally, make sure any decisions are made by one person, not a committee or by popular vote. Everyone should understand how the decision will be implemented, and the decision maker should be held accountable to that decision.
Habit 6: Add Value
You’ve done the pre-work. You’ve got the right people in the room and everyone is focused. Now make sure your team is working on solutions that maximize long term benefits to the company, not personal agendas. Likewise, attack the problem, not the person, and make sure that those who disagree propose a solution. Don’t interrupt, but don’t be afraid to ask good questions (add value!), speak your mind (add value!), but don’t dominate the conversation. And lastly, never tolerate rude behavior or others who show up unprepared or who aren’t paying attention.
Habit 7: Follow Through or Fail
A great meeting instantly becomes worthless if we fail to follow through. The meeting should have clear next steps that pushes the business forward, so ensure all participants understand who is doing what, and when.
Freeing ourselves from the tyranny of wasteful and unproductive meetings allows us to spend time on the important but not urgent work that allows for real progress. By practicing good meeting habits (and instilling them in your team) you can hold fewer but more powerful meetings.
(1)The team that designed the original iPhone, arguably the most successful consumer product ever created, included just 6 people. Imagine how watered down (and almost certainly less successful and slower to market) the product would have been if the team was double or triple in size.
