Making Broccoli Delicious
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Okay, meetings are a part of work. Just like broccoli provides certain nutrients, meetings serve a role in managing and conducting business. They can be effective and enjoyable.
During my corporate career, I utilized a format for planning effective meetings. This format can help you gain the respect of your colleagues by demonstrating your respect for their time. Administrative assistants will love you because this format will make it easier for them to schedule the meetings that you request. The planning format includes the following components.
- Desired Results
- Approach
- Actions to Be Taken
- Participants
- Reality Check
- Meeting Preparation
- Duration
- Timing
- Facilities & Equipment
This edition will cover Desired Results and Approach.
There are 3 basic types of meetings.
- Informational
- Updates
- Closure
Informational meetings can serve as a means for:
- Clarifying why the project or activity is initiated, how it will be executed, and who will be responsible for doing what.
- Setting a direction.
- Establishing the organizational position on a situation, incident or event.
- Providing essential information
Before scheduling an informational meeting, you should determine if a meeting is the most effective means of providing information. You should also determine if the meeting should be accompanied by announcements or use of other channels of communication to ensure effective communication.
Updates should facilitate the tracking of performance, progress toward accomplishing objectives as well as the resolution of issues and adjustments to the execution of a project, initiative or activity. The effectiveness of update meetings can be enhanced by:
- Scheduling recurring meetings at a designated time (e.g. 10:00, Wednesdays). This will increase the chances that the meetings will be attended by individuals whose participation is essential to monitoring progress.
- Ensuring continuity among meetings. This will avoid repetitive and unproductive discussions of items that were covered in previous meetings. An effective tool for ensuring continuity is the follow-up communication (email message) to each meeting. Key components of an effective follow-up communication are what was decided, actions to be taken (tasks, who is responsible for completing the tasks and when the task will be completed), confirmation of priorities until the next meeting and the time, date and agenda for the next meeting.
How many times have you participated in a project, initiative or activity that never seems to end? Closure meetings are like funerals, they confirm the end (it's all over!). Closure meetings confirm the results or accomplishment of the objectives and inform individuals that they are no longer required to work on the project, initiative or activity. These meetings can also ensure that the results or solutions are integrated into on-going operations or company processes.
To establish Desired Results, ask:
- What type of meeting am I going to conduct (informational, update, closure)?
- What need will the meeting satisfy given the type?
Another way of establishing the desired results is what I call the bus stop answer. Think of people assembled at a bus stop waiting for a ride to their cars in the parking lot at the conclusion of your meeting. The bus stop answer should be the same answer that you want the meeting participants to provide when asked:
What happened or what did you get or achieve as a result of the meeting you just attended?
Desired Results should be something tangible and be stated as a noun to ensure focus and clarity. Examples of desired results are:
- Approval of funding to initiate project.
- Agreement on project plan.
- Assignment of responsibilities.
- Common understanding of roles and responsibilities.
- Action plan for preparing for the annual conference.
The Approach will include the sequential steps that will be taken to achieve the Desired Results during the meeting. For example, a meeting with the desired result of approval of funding of a project proposal could include the following steps.
- Define problem to be solved or the opportunity.
- Reach agreement on the solution to the problem or what needs to be done to take advantage of the opportunity.
- Communicate and ensure understanding of the benefits the project will deliver.
- Establish how the project benefits will be measured and tracked.
- Establish how risks will be managed.
- Establish how the project execution will be monitored.
- Communicate when the project will start and when it will end.
- Establish actions that will be taken to initiate the project after funding is approved.
Notice that each step started with an action verb. Use of action verbs will ensure clarity and specificity.
Steps that you establish can be governed by what other meetings have occurred, what information is needed to achieve the desired results, your company's processes and your company's culture. The culture in some companies may require summary information while others may require detailed information.
Establishing Desired Results and Approach can be iterative. You may find a need to refine or change the Desired Results based on insight that you gain as you develop the Approach. However, the Approach must be consistent with the Desired Results. You cannot establish the how (Approach) until you establish the what (Desired Results).
Our next edition will address Actions to be Taken, Participants and Reality Check.
