Powerful Meetings in 15 Minutes or Less
Meetings provide an opportunity for everyone to get involved in a project, exchange information, and increase understanding. Unfortunately, many meetings have turned into black holes that eat time and energy.
Take control of your meetings and give them purpose. According to Doug Staneart, CEO of The Leaders Institute, here are some rules for purposeful meetings:
- Have an agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This helps avoid "chasing rabbits" and encourages participants to be prepared.
- Follow the agenda: This sounds elementary, but a number of people take the time to create an agenda yet totally disregard it during the meeting.
- Limit the agenda to three points or less: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things we need to cover in the meeting?" The rest of the things, by definition, weren't really that important anyway, so why waste everyone's time?
- Set a time limit: Set a time limit for no longer than 30 minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15 minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become more efficient and the participants will be more focused.
When the time limit is up, end the meeting. You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of times you try this, but within a short time, you'll find that the major points are being discussed and decisions made efficiently.
- Encourage participation from everyone, but don't force them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, simply ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will "phase out" — especially if it's long and boring. Calling on every person wastes time and puts people on the spot.
You can also encourage participation by asking a question. If some people rarely speak, you might say something like, "I value the opinion of each of you. Does anyone else have something to add?" Then just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, this type of encouragement may be just what's needed. If not, you haven't embarrassed anyone.
Meetings can be a powerful way to communicate and solve problems. They can serve as a platform to identify the root-cause of a problem, come up with dozens of possible solutions, come to a consensus on the best solution, and create a written, measurable plan of action all within 15 minutes or less.
Doug Staneart, doug@leaderinstitute.com, is CEO of The Leaders Institute, Management and Public Speaking Training.
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