The Art of Effective Meetings

Love it or hate it, you cannot get away from meetings. The meetings I’m talking about today are the corporate meetings: The daily and weekly or monthly meetings.

In this post, I’ll share my thoughts on:

1. Why many people “do not like” meetings 👎
2. How meetings can hurt organizations if done incorrectly 😱
3. The real power of meetings 💪
4. How to do meetings so they are not bored ✅

Meetings are boring

❌Here are some reasons why many people hate meetings.

Meaningless

Some meetings are just meaningless. They do not bring excitement, they do not have takeaways or learnings. Such meetings when happening often will take away the fun and excitement of meetings. To make things worse, soon it will be termed as a “waste of time” which could have been used to do focused work.

Could have been an email

Some meetings could be just an email. Tasks which has clear instructions and not a lot of room to misinterpret (this is key) can simply be done via email. Setting up meetings for that would not be necessary.

Zero Engagement

Meetings where one person only speaks and others just have to listen. The meeting participants do not feel connected/engaged. Sometimes it is a cultural problem.

I don’t know why I’m in this meeting

Having incorrect participants for the meeting is a huge turn-off. Participants are pulled to mindless meetings spanning hours together. Cannot get worse than this.

Meetings hurt your organization

Productivity loss

If participants are spending time on meetings, how would have time to work on other tasks? We all have 8-9 working hours in a day ( and much less if you look at peak productivity).

Loss of team morale

Too many “not so useful meetings” or “I don’t know why I’m in this meeting”, or “could have been an email” meetings can hurt the morale of the team. Highly ambitious people could quit.

Cost to company

If 10 participants are in a “useless meeting” for an hour, that is equivalent to 10 hours of nonproductive time. This will impact the client and that is a cost no company wants.

Oh, many more..

The real power of meetings

Focused Decisions Making

Meetings are a great way to align on the direction. This can be achieved with collaborative and effective communication among participants.

Meetings are well “meetings

You have an opportunity to “meet” your team and bond with them better. Be it “face-to-face” meetings or “online meetings”, it should make way to build a better bond among participants.

Innovation space

People inspire people. Ideas inspire ideas. Meetings are a great place to brainstorm new ideas and come up with innovative way to solve a problem.

How to do meetings effectively.

Clear Agenda

Every meeting should have an agenda of what shall be discussed. This sets the tone and provides a direction for the participants to come prepared.

Right schedule

Usually, it’s not a good idea to have meetings beyond 30 mins. If the meeting has to go beyond 30 mins, carefully choose the participants. I have this habit of scheduling 15-minute meetings and most of the time it’s enough. It is also important to end the meeting on time 🙂

Ensure participation

Let everyone know why they are in the meeting and how this meeting will help them achieve a common goal. This will ensure better participation. Engage participants to ask questions, share thoughts/ideas and encourage them to speak their minds.

Last 2 minutes of the meeting

Just before wrapping up a meeting, check if the agenda of the meeting was met, align on action items that need to be addressed and by whom. If needed, set up a follow-up meeting.

Meetings are just another tools we have at our disposal. Always aim for meetings that add value, spark creativity, drive action, and foster growth.