With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Meetings have become more ubiquitous during the pandemic. I am engaged in a constant competition to manage my own time and schedule against various interests. Therefore I regularly spend a reasonable amount of time in order to contemplate on the best ways to invest my own and sometimes also my colleagues' time. The best thing I could come up with so far are a few principles that serve as checks and balances against wasting time. But before elaborating on those principles, let me give you a visceral truth about the use of your own and other people's times in a business context:
"If you are conducting a one-hour meeting at your company, you have effectively stolen one hour from every person in the room. If there are twenty people in the room, your presentation is now the equivalent of a twenty-hour investment. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that you do not waste the hour..." [Matthew Dicks, Storyworthy]
The Democratic Rule Of Time
Time is the only really democratic currency in that everybody can only spend so much within a specific period, say hour, day, week. The single real privilege in life is to be able to decide how to spend your time. And for this I have one golden rule that beats all other principles: the rule of opportunity. The decision on how to spend my time is largely driven by a default alternative as a baseline - e.g. 'Do nothing at all.'. For me that baseline is usually 'Spend time with my loved ones.'. This has become a pretty valid and realistic baseline, since I work from home most of the time and I always have the option to spontaneously spend the afternoon with my children. Therefore in case I wonder whether I should join a meeting or work on a specific subject, I ask myself this first: What is the cost of opportunity of a given investment? This strategy can also be applied to various alternatives at a given time: Finish some work that requires focus and thinking or join a meeting? I try not to be too strict about this rule in general and keep my schedule flexible to a certain degree. If my schedule is so full that I cannot even squeeze in any short meetings, I try to free up some time by postponing. In case that is not possible, I am pretty radical in consequence: I shorten the duration of meetings or cancel them entirely.
Minimum Quality Principles for Meetings
When I set up meetings -and rob my colleagues' time-, I apply these principles to maximize the return on investment:
1. Keep meetings short. My standard unit for meetings is 15mins, sometimes even only 10mins for a one on one. I hope to invoke a sense of urgency and of instant engagement. I absolutely dread endless workshops that drag on for hours or even days. Instead I prefer to encourage my colleagues to work autonomously and to bring results to the table when we have meetings, so we can discuss which results to follow up on in the next step.
2. Focus on productivity (instead of on business). My standard workshop length is one hour. However I am more than happy to cut meetings short as soon as the desired results are achieved. Initially this might freak out people because they rather expect to fill the scheduled time bucket instead of maximizing productivity. However people who have worked together with me over some weeks or even months quickly adapt to the productivity focused approach and are happy to get more things done in less time.
3. Set expectations beforehand. Tell people what the expected outcome of the meeting is. Be very specific - is it a decision, is it a plan, is it the understanding of a problem or the solution to one? If done right your participants will instantly understand their role and their potential contribution. Therefore they are likely to understand WHY they are invited to your meeting.
4. Be a contributor (and not a customer). Ask yourself, what you can contribute, instead of what others should or need to contribute. Teamwork is like a welfare state. If members take an individualistic, customer-like receiving approach instead of a contributor's stance the team will not benefit and might even fail in the end. Foster collaboration and commitment. Everyone in your team should behave like a field player rather than like a referee. Don't just point out what needs to be done or could be improved but do something about it and provide results.
5. Stay approachable. Making yourself unavailable most of the time is not the mark of good leadership. In fact, as you climb up the career ladder, you should feel less stress and more freedom of choice. It is an absolute contradiction to be a highly stressed and successful manager. If you feel stressed out, you need to do something about it. In order to lead, you need to be present and you need to be visible and easily approachable. That does not mean you have to be available at all times. But the famous slogan 'Go from overlooked to overbooked.' is not my cup of tea when it comes to leadership.
6. Always end on a high note. Reward your participants and your team members for their effort and their contribution. Show some gratitude. Summarize the results on a board for everyone to see. Share your minutes. Give everyone something unexpected, something that will make them feel their time was well invested, maybe even proud of their work. Never underestimate the power of loyalty and good will. Keep in mind you're on a marathon, not -only- a sprint.
There are tons of more tips on how to ensure enjoyable and effective meetings. However I found these the most important and the ones that render the best results for no matter what kind of meetings. Whether it is in a high level C-level context or on a shop floor working environment: with these principles your meetings will become more effective and more fun for all participants. When applied correctly, people will look forward to having meetings with you, because they will leave your meetings with a sense of achievement and progress.
With that I wish you all the best for your next meeting!
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