The Art of Business: Leader of the Pack
Consider this: The average senior executive spends an average of 23 hours a week in meetings, and the middle manager 11 hours a week, according to a study by The Wharton Center for Applied Research. That means the moment you’re asked to facilitate a meeting, you start with one strike against you.
Now here’s strike two: Managers report that 44 percent of all meetings are completely unproductive, and 25 percent could have been replaced by a phone call, email, or memo.
These statistics drive home a sobering point: When asked to facilitate a meeting, formally or informally, it’s to your benefit to make sure you’re fully prepared with the tools to get the job done, the leadership to forge consensus, and the guts to keep the meeting from turning into a squabble fest, or worse, a muddled, meandering mess.
Many creative professionals underestimate the time needed to organize and run a good meeting.
The hardest part, and certainly the most time-consuming, is the planning. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Goals. Without them, it’s difficult to create an agenda and hard to know who should attend. Every meeting should have concrete, realistic, and measurable goals of things you want to accomplish. Your goals might include a strategy and timeline to implement a campaign; a strategy and timeline for a specific milestone; or, most importantly, make the sale.
- Agenda. Provide a printed agenda, or at least make the agenda known at the top of the meeting. At the very least it shows that you’ve thought about the meeting and are willing to be the leader. Many professional facilitators list the objective of each discussion item on the agenda. If it’s appropriate, assign suggested time limits for each agenda item as well.
- Background/Materials/Proposals. Clients find it easier to respond to proposals than to create from scratch. So it’s a good idea to provide the background necessary for people to make good decisions and save the group time. Written and visual proposals enable people to identify the points of disagreement or concern, and it also allows you to frame the debate. The larger the meeting, the more important it is that there proposals for groups to choose from and alter. Small groups can create strategies and develop plans, but large groups can only alter and choose.
If you’re facilitating a meeting:
- Stick to the Agenda. When you hear the discussion wandering, bring it home. Practice this handy phrase: “That’s an interesting issue, but perhaps we should get back to the original matter of discussion.”
- Create Action. A meeting shouldn’t be a therapy group; it’s a launch pad for action. Make sure everyone knows what is to be accomplished.
- Avoid Detailed Decision-Making. Sometimes it’s easier for a group to discuss the minutia than it is the larger issues. Keep everyone focused on the big stuff and request that the details be worked out later, after the meeting in smaller groups or with key personnel.
- Know When to Fold ‘Em. It’s up to you to stop a conversation when it’s taking a wrong turn or turning in circles. Formulate a consensus position and then move forward. If one or two people disagree, state the situation as clearly as you can and ask that the issue be resolved later.
- Get Commitments. Nothing gets done without commitment from individuals. Take adequate time to seek commitments and write down those commitments in front of everyone.
- Encourage Participation. Some of the best ideas may never get heard if the quiet and shy don’t get a chance to speak up because one or a few people are hogging the floor. Try this phrase: “Let’s hear from someone who hasn’t spoken yet.”
- Be Flexible. Occasionally, issues and concerns that you hadn’t planned on will arise. If necessary, change direction but try to restructure the agenda so the most important items remain.
- Learn How to Summarize. Therapists do it all the time: “What I hear you saying is…” Before closing a meeting. Summarize what happened and what follow-up will occur next. Ask people to summarize their understandings of their commitments.
- Thank People. Take a moment to thank people simply for coming, but also for making the meeting a success.
- End on Time. No one will hold it against you if the meeting gets out early.
If you’re a participant in the meeting:
- Determine if the meeting is really necessary. If not, kindly suggest an alternative, and save yourself and your client some time.
- Prepare yourself for every agenda, spoken and unspoken. You know the drill; someone calls a meeting for one reason, when really the subject is something far more insidious. Prepare yourself for all possibilities, so you’re not blindsided once the meeting is called to order.
- Be active and present. Easier said than done in meetings that drone on endlessly. But think of meetings as your chance to exhibit your brilliance and wit. Help keep the meeting moving by staying on task, keeping side issues on the sidelines, and taking notes for follow up conversations or actions.
Meetings usually fail because of a lack of preparation and/or execution. This is not much of a revelation, which makes it all the more startling when people fail to take the few steps needed to make meetings succeed.
This article was last modified on July 11, 2023
This article was first published on April 11, 2005
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