Meeting Madness

Most companies I know hold lots of meetings.  They hold short meetings and long meetings, weekly meetings and monthly meetings.  They may even hold an annual meeting.  The most common complaint I hear from people is this, “we meet and we meet and nothing gets done.”  This is what I refer to as “Meeting Madness.”

There are only a few legitimate reasons to have a meeting.  One is to inform.  It is helpful to gather people together to give them information, especially if it is sensitive or if it involves serious upcoming changes.  However, you don’t always have to meet to share information.  Use email, voicemail and written reports where appropriate.  At a minimum, this will allow you to use meetings to discuss and act on the information, rather than simply to impart it.

Second is to brainstorm.  There is nothing like getting a group of people together to bounce ideas around.  The interaction can result in better ideas than one person could develop alone, and the exercise helps get buy-in from those involved. 

The third legitimate reason to have a meeting is to plan for action.  This means there will be specific assignments as a result of the meeting with deadlines and measurement mechanisms.  Actually, this third reason should be a part of almost every meeting.

In many meetings, action statements are stated like this:  “We really need to ….”  The first problem with this statement is the pronoun “we.”  Who IS “we” anyway?  Without a specific person assigned, it is likely that nothing will get done.  Without a deadline for completing the action, it will get put off.  Without a reporting mechanism to close the loop, it will end up in the black hole of things that never got done.

If you hear these complaints in your company, perhaps you should consider using a meeting facilitator.  A good facilitator will help you plan, keep you on schedule and on task, and make sure assignments are specific and measurable.  If you use the same facilitator over time, he or she can help you monitor progress.  It’s amazing how much gets done when people know they’ll be called on to report at the next gathering.

If you’ve never tried using a facilitator because you thought it was too expensive, think of the time and money you waste with unproductive meetings.  Reduce the number of meetings, make those you have more productive, and you could find that a good facilitator is like money in the bank!