Another reason why informal and non-recurring meetings can be more effective is their preparation. Or rather in this context, the level of preparation of the participants. Because even if the people attending such a meeting haven’t reviewed a formal agenda beforehand, they know perfectly well why they are here, what they are responsible for, what they want to accomplish, what they should know and what they want to find out. And you dear manager? You come unprepared and on top of that, you don’t allow others to prepare themselves.

And I know how it sounds, you’re thinking – who the hell is stopping them from preparing? – Unfortunately, you.

Because you probably didn’t clearly define the agenda of the meeting or its specific goal. Didn’t assign roles to the participants or indicate the specific information they should prepare. And now you sit back comfortably at the end of the table and ask people to talk about everything they know, even if that information doesn’t actually bring you closer to solving the problem. Then you ask random questions to create the illusion of interest and in the end you all nod your heads and.. end a meeting through which absolutely nothing changes. You go back to your own matters, separated by a walls, carrying out your tasks individually, instead of working together toward common goals. That meeting might as well have never happened. Everyone would have saved time and energy. And while energy is an unlimited resource though it needs to be replenished periodically, time is a finite resource and you just wasted it twice over. First, each participant individually reduced their time for completing other tasks that day and I assume this isn’t their only meeting today, and certainly not the only one this week. Additionally, from a business perspective the company incurred costs without even the slightest chance of a return on investment. Let’s assume the meeting lasted say 45 minutes, of which 15 minutes were delays, small talk, coffee, and pleasantries – but that doesn’t matter because the remaining 30 minutes didn’t add much more value either. At least 5 people participated in it. And it happens every week, because after all consistency is key. Congratulations, you’ve just cost the company nearly 200 hours annually in meetings that bring absolutely nothing. Now multiply that number by the average hourly rate of the participants and then by the rest of the meetings in your calendar. Or maybe better not…

3. Participation (selection of participants)

This stage although it may seem obvious, usually – to put it mildly – “has significant potential for optimization.”

In an informal meeting only interested individuals take part, because they themselves decided they want to meet and they know exactly why. And if it turns out that someone in the meeting is not competent or lacks the right information it ends very quickly. Without unnecessary politics and fake politeness, yet no one takes offense. A new date and configuration are arranged with stakeholders who can actually contribute something. And now formal meetings. Activate yor imagination for a moment. Try to recall two hypothetical situations or better yet, reflect on recent meetings you’ve attended. Most often the organizer is the person highest in the hierarchy of a given area, because we operate in silos environment and meetings organized by lower-level employees would be considered unworthy of attention by some participants. As we all know, managers are busy “managing” and unfortunately don’t have time to verify how the process actually works today or who is really involved. So random people are invited, anyone the organizer can think of as more or less related to the topic – usually not the ones who actually should be there. And when you receive a meeting invite from your superior, even if you have no idea why you’re supposed to attend it’s not exactly appropriate to decline, so we go. Not knowing what it’s about or what exactly to expect. Because, as we established earlier clear assumptions, expectations or an agenda are usually not shared with participants before the meeting – after all, everyone loves surprises. Studies show that, on average only about 20% of meeting participants actually add value. And honestly, I think that’s an optimistic number and I’d confidently cut it in half.

4. Process

The fourth element is the process, the structured course of the meeting which cannot be random. It should however be goal-oriented, time-bound, well-planned, prepared and finalized with specific conclusions and an action plan. And here again, informal meetings have the upper hand. Because if we’re already meeting it’s not to engage in polite conversation and waste valuable time. We’ve got a job to do and to get it done we first need to solve a common problem. And that’s exactly why we’re here. Even if we haven’t intentionally designed this meeting according to any managerial methodology. It’s common sense and the right intentions driven by time pressure make it effective. The format is short and to the point, the topics addressed are relevant, the language is simple and the conclusions are clear to everyone. And do your meetings with the team follow this pattern of precise effectiveness? If so – congratulations! If not – keep reading and you’ll learn how to change that, starting tomorrow.

5. Progress

No surprise here, that formal meetings once again have to give way to informal ones. Because in meetings involving a small group of stakeholders, without corporate savoir-faire it’s natural that after the conversation ends we briefly summarize what has been agreed. We make sure that all stakeholders commit to following the new arrangements. And then, so that nothing gets lost or just to have a so-called “backup” and avoid post factum debates we send a short summary by email and go back to our tasks. And that’s it – it really is that simple. Maybe there’s no clear structure, no professional approach, templates or spreadsheets. But that’s unnecessary when all meeting participants are outcome-oriented, aware of the problem and engaged in solving it.

And what about formal meetings? They took place, we talked. Did anyone take notes? Probably yes, but each for themselves – wrote down what was important from their own perspective, subjectively and selectively. And will anyone ever come back to it, check it, verify it? Probably not. At least not until more signs of problems in the process start to show. Managers think they’ve done a great job, because after all there was a meeting about it – which they “organized”. The quotation marks are intentional, because as you can probably guess beyond sending out invites, they didn’t do anything more on the organizational aspect.
And employees? Even though little has changed, they adapt to the uncomfortable situation. Because the meeting already happened and since nothing changed, there’s no point in raising the issue again – it must mean nothing can be done about it. – Yes, that’s exactly how it works.

Summary

So how do we make meetings truly valuable? First, we must realize that responsibility for every meeting lies with the highest-ranking participant. So if you tend to delegate the preparation or facilitation of meetings and then only question people afterward. Please remember that, you can delegate tasks but you cannot fully delegate responsibility. Because even if you’ve agreed that someone else is directly responsible for a specific matter, in this case running the meeting – you are still indirectly responsible for the final outcome. That clearly means you are also responsible for whether the person you assigned has the competence, time and knowledge to successfully carry out the task. And whether they received the necessary substantive support from you as the leader. And this brings us to the key principles of effective meetings. The foundation is proper preparation, which I mentioned earlier, based on the so-called 5P method. This already provides a solid base for a meeting to have purpose and potential. Also, think about a clear goal and the outcome you want to achieve, because action without a defined outcome is one of the types of waste described by Daniel Kahneman as the activity trap. This is a situation in which we consciously or subconsciously try to do a lot, to hide from ourselves or others fact that we don’t really have a grasp on the situation and our actions lack clear direction. But since we’re busy we are productive, right? That’s a topic for a longer discussion, so I think I’ll leave it for another time. Back to the point – 5P is not everything, though it gives you a strong foundation.

So what’s next?

You need to ask yourself what kind of meeting is this? And run it according to the proper standard. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. At Lean Executive, we’ve created our own framework called M-CORE. Composed of six categories and principles that ensure meeting effectiveness – always. It’s both a litmus test and a guide for running any meeting in a way that truly generates value.

Thank you for reading the article. If you’d like to learn more, check out the next article linked below.