It’s common for people at all levels of an organization to say they dislike meetings. I hear it all the time. But for each of us, different reasons drive that disdain. Too many meetings for our liking. Too few. Too meandering. Too scripted. Too dominated by certain people or beliefs. Too much talk, not enough results. Any of these hit home for you?
That’s why it pays to step back and evaluate the quality and quantity of your meetings. I’ll provide a checklist so you can give yours a going-over.
But first, let’s remind ourselves what we hope meetings of various types accomplish:
- Provide timely information. These meetings may involve top-down announcements or status reports shared among colleagues.
- Give direction. This is the huddle before the play; the review of roles, responsibilities and goals.
- Make group decisions. These confabs have the goal of giving participants a vote on a pending matter.
- Produce a product. These gatherings (such as daily news/editorial meetings) are part of a production process.
- Generate ideas. These session are aimed at brainstorming or problem-solving.
- Observe rituals. People gather formally or informally to acknowledge what they believe is significant.
I say we hope our meetings accomplish these things because often they don’t. The reasons vary, but include a lack of clarity on the meeting’s goals, a conflation of several types of meetings into one or counterproductive behavior among participants. Meetings that once had a clear purpose and impact may drift into inefficiency.
Meetings are also a reflection of an organization’s culture — its strengths and its weaknesses. The authors of the book “Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life,” write:
Are you dealing with what is supposed to matter most in your meetings? Are they accomplishing what you want? I developed this “Manage Your Meetings Checklist” so you can evaluate your meetings and take action to improve them:
MANAGE YOUR MEETINGS — JILL’S CHECKLIST
2. Does this meeting have an agenda and format that help people prepare and keep us on track?
3. Is the right person leading the meeting? Do we have other options? How might different leadership alter the meeting?
4. Do the right people attend this meeting? Is anyone missing? Anyone no longer critical to the meeting, but here out of habit?
5. Are the people at this meeting contributing meaningfully? If not, why — and what can we do to improve participation?
6. How well do we stay on track? What or who causes us to lose focus? What can we do to minimize distractions and drift?
7. Do we end each meeting with a clear understanding of next steps, roles, responsibilities, deadlines and how we communicate between meetings?
8. If we stopped holding this meeting, what would happen? What harm might we cause or good might we do? What alternatives would we develop to accomplish the meeting’s goals?
I’m not as cranky about meetings as the late, legendary management sage Peter Drucker, who said “Meetings are a symptom of bad organization.” But I hope by assessing yours carefully, you’ll sort the necessary from the needless and improve every meeting you manage.
By the way, out of those eight questions in the checklist, there’s one I believe is critical to productivity and performance, especially in these changing times. I explain more about this in today’s podcast: “What Great Bosses Know about Managing Meetings.”
Poynter’s “What Great Bosses Know” podcast is sponsored by The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. You can download a complete series of these podcasts free on iTunesU. Poynter’s leadership and management expert Jill Geisler shares practical information on leadership and management that’s valuable for bosses in newsrooms and all walks of life.
