Momentum Monday: Not All Meetings Suck – How to Hold a Kick-@%# Productive Meeting

Ever find yourself tempted to cancel a meeting to get more ‘actual’ work done? That’s a sign that #1: you are attending too many meetings and #2: the meetings you are attending aren’t all that productive.

The reason meetings feel unproductive is that people get sidetracked discussing unimportant details and never accomplish what needs to be accomplished to move things forward.

What’s worse is meetings tend to pile on the to-do’s so at the end of it, you have even more actual work to do and less time to do it in. No wonder you feel like canceling meetings…

It’s tempting to forego meetings altogether, but you can’t because meetings do serve an important role: making the decisions that set the direction of the company and allocating the proper human resource to get there.

How to Hold a Kick-@%# Productive Meeting

#1: Handle Updates Outside the Meeting – Asking people to update you on their progress in the meeting is a complete waste of time. Consider update reports a prerequisite for attending the meeting.

Instead of dragging out meetings with individual updates use task management tools to communicate updates or hold quick one-on-one power update sessions to stay on top of tasks.

#2: Compress Meeting Time – It’s tempting to hold extended meetings to cover off everything that needs to be discussed. Instead compress meeting time into shorter power meetings and stay focused on a core list of meeting tasks.

Shorter meetings help minimize the temptation to stray off topic. Let meeting attendees know that if they would like a topic covered, it must be submitted to the meeting organizer in advance.

#3: Set a Clear Agenda – Know what you want to accomplish in the meeting and set a clear agenda that outlines how you are going to do that. For example, a key objective could be to get consensus on a new company initiative.

A good agenda highlights key activities, identifies who leads that discussion and assigns a time limit for each item. Be sure to send out the agenda in advance and use it in the meeting to stay on track.

#4: Build in Follow-up – The purpose of meetings is to make decisions, and create action plans. If there is little or no follow-up on those key decisions, then there is absolutely no purpose for the meeting.

Assign the Meeting Minute Taker to take notes, preferably in Outlook so it’s ready to send immediately following the meeting, and assign tasks in your internal task management system.

#5: Allocate 5 Minutes for Follow-up – Chances are you will leave the meeting with a lot of ideas bouncing around in your head. Take 5 minutes to get all the ideas down and create an action plan for your new to-do’s.

Schedule tasks, assign activities, and plan in your calendar when you are going to do the projects discussed in the meeting. Creating a concrete action plan immediately following the meeting means you won’t miss any key details.