NOT Another Meeting!

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009


Meeting Mania? Try These Tips!

Let’s try this scenario for a change in your meeting strategy. Tools needed: one iPhone or recording device. One maverick meeting attendee who is fed up with long, boring, useless, trivia and ego infested agendas.

Maverick transforms blackberry into a fly-on-the-wall, positioning himself unobtrusively at the board room door, or at the water cooler. Audio/video on: what are people really talking about - the strategic items that need to be actioned, or the way that another hour was eaten by the meeting monster?

If only the hallways could talk. Actually, they can, if only you’d ask.

Enough said about useless meetings.
I’d like to introduce three tips which might improve the function and format of your next discussion at the board room table.

Tip 1

Get quirky.

I recently heard the story about a CEO, who was bothered by fast-paced and sometimes, inappropriate decision making during staff meetings. The pace was harried, driven by a collective need to just get this done. He wanted to slow things down to a conversational pace. He believed that rushing through the agenda was creating a dysfunctional arena for strategic thinking. What did he do?

He left his blackberry behind, and began recording his notes using a historic device. He purchased a fountain pen. Now and again, he’d say, “Excuse me, I didn’t quite get that point written down. Would you repeat it please?”.

Meetings became calmer, and the CEO gained control. The culture changed.

Tip 2

Surprise.

If the gang consistently and unconsciously protects their own turf - “this is MY seat” - change locations and stay standing.

A mid-level supervisor discovered, quite by accident (conversation overheard in the ladies room) that her division’s one hour meetings were draining and boring. She changed the format, location and without fail timed the agenda to start on time and end on time: 15 minutes max. Now into week 38, she’s excited about their progress. The grumbling has stopped.

Tip 3

Build Meeting Skills.

Invest in formal “presentation” or “facilitation skills” training for everyone on your team.

It’s easy to criticize if you’ve never had to manage a group conflict, or sort through a complex problem with twenty silent participants and a couple of very vocal dissenters. When the shoe is on the other foot - or the control of the agenda is on your own plate - you will understand the skills required to move the meeting to a satisfactory conclusion. The added value is that the chair role can be transferred easily, and people speak up more often.

What’s your best strategy for enhanced meetings? Slowing down, speeding up, collective leadership?


Final Tip

Let me suggest that you bring this column to your next meeting. Ask the folks around the table two questions.

The first: “What can we do to engage everyone at our meetings?”

Next: “What do we do at every meeting that’s frustrating you?”.

Then do what the group has advised you to do. Take the lead and don’t judge their feedback even if you think that the suggestions and comments are too quirky, too slow, too fast or just too...


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Maggie Chicoine’s company, The Idea Sculptor, specializes in “Strategies to Think Ahead.” Her weekly column, The Tuesday File, appears in www.lakesuperiornews.com. She posts to her MAGOHZINE blog on Tuesdays at www.theideasculptor.blogspot.com.

Maggie is a charter member of CAPS, a Master Coach (ICF) and professional writer (PWAC).

Reach her at twitter @ideasculptor or 1 800 587 1767.