Take Control of Your Meetings…Please!

Meetings exist to get things done.  Meetings also exist to accomplish a set of specific items during a set period of time.  Unfortunately, somewhere in the course of human history they also became a venue for filibustering and pontification.  If you’re entrusted to run a meeting, then please, take control of it and use them for what they’re intended for: getting things done.

Recently I sat through a meeting with over twenty highly competent, educated people.  Each of them occupied management positions and no doubt had full agenda’s and multiple tasks in motion.  Although there was a lot of knowledge in the room, the person running the meeting didn’t harness that knowledge by taking control.  They also didn’t respect everyone attending by establishing an agenda or identifying specific action items to be accomplished during the hour-long event.  With no controls over time or focus established up front, the people in the room spent over two hours pontificating, debating and discussing.  The end result?  Another meeting to be held in a week’s time.

If you’ve ever sat through a similar situation you know how frustrating it can be to be held hostage by a meeting that’s out of control.  So when you’re the one running the meeting, take control of it.

1.  Make an agenda.  This is lesson number one in “Meetings 101”, yet I’ll attend a hundred meetings before I attend one with an agenda.  Agenda’s may seem formal, but they’ll keep everyone on task and help ensure you get the important things accomplished.

2.  Establish a set time, no more than an hour.  If your meeting is more than hour, it’s a hostage situation.  Even meeting-hardened warriors can begin to lose the ability to focus after an hour.  If your meeting is going to run past an hour, take a break then reconvene or reschedule part two.

3.  Identify specific tasks to be accomplished or decisions to be made.  In addition to an agenda, identify specific tasks to be accomplished or decisions to be made.  This will further focus everyone’s actions during the meeting and give you useful deliverables to show for everyone’s time. 

4.  Coordinate work before the meeting.  If there are specific deliverables to be discussed in the meeting, accomplish that work before the meeting.  Use the meeting as the venue for review of the work and reconciling inputs and comments.  This rule is especially helpful for engineers on design reviews. 

5.  Do not allow someone to hijack your meeting.  You’re in charge, so be in charge.  Don’t allow someone else to drive the meeting focus off the agenda and action items.  Especially, don’t allow them to pontificate.  Sharing ideas and concepts are great, but taking everyone of topic isn’t.  Keep everyone on task and on time.

Meetings exist for you and your team to present or exchange information, plan joint activities, make decisions, or carry out actions already agreed upon.  They don’t exist to wish we were someplace else.

“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.”  Thomas Sowell

Christian Knutson, P.E., PMP is a leader, civil engineer, and author.  He’s an accomplished professional specializing in A/E/C work internationally and author of The Engineer Leader, a recognized blog on leadership and life success for engineers and professionals.