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How To Stop A Meandering Meeting
You are in your third meeting for the day, and the agenda is in your hand, so you are aware of what needs to happen in the next sixty minutes. Shortly after the meeting begins, a member has an issue that he brings up that has nothing to do with the agenda, and he proceeds to give a long description of the problem expecting some discussion. The leader allows this person to carry on the conversation knowing it has no place on the agenda. What should you do?
We have all been a part of meetings that meander off course causing anxiety in the members that need to get parts of the agenda accomplished. We often look at the leader of the meeting as the one that needs to fix this meandering behavior and get us back on course. While the leader is ultimately responsible for the flow of conversation in a meeting, every member of the meeting has a responsibility to get the group back on task. Here are a few of my tips to help minimize the meandering:
- Have an agenda that lists the purpose of the each topic. For instance is the item on the agenda for discussion, a decision or just to share information? Knowing the purpose helps the leader assign the correct amount of time to the topic.
- Create a parking lot. Many of us are aware of this meeting tool but forget to have a screen or flipchart available to capture these ideas. Essentially, the parking lot is where you park ideas that are important but take the group off task. For instance if the meeting is about reducing waste in a process and someone brings up the need for better intercom on the production floor, it can be captured on a sheet of paper for everyone to see but will not become part of today's meeting. This honors the person that brought up the idea while not allowing the idea to dominate the current discussion and take the group off task.
- Decide if the agenda item is tactical or strategic. Patrick Lencioni in his book Death by Meeting, identifies the need to keep short term tactical issues of a meeting to weekly meeting and strategic issues to strategic meetings that meet once in a while but have enough time allotted to them. Meetings can get off track when large strategic discussions take place within tactical meetings. For instance, coverage for the front desk can be handled at a weekly staff meeting but improving a process needs more time and should be a special meeting with an hour or more for discussion and decisions to take place.
- Gently steer the conversation back on topic. For instance, if the leader poses a question about an agenda item and someone pulls the discussion off topic, wait for a quiet moment and answer the leaders' original question to pull the group back on topic.
- Change the agenda. Sometimes a topic discussion is so important and relevant that it supercedes the day's agenda. The leader or member should interrupt the discussion and propose that the 'hot' topic actually become the agenda because of its urgency. Or you can postpone items that are less urgent for the next week's meeting and use that additional time for the "hot" topic.
Question: Do you lead or are you a member of meetings that tend to meander? Call to Action: Follow the tips above to help your meetings stay on task for improved results. Note: There are times when a meandering discussion can yield creative results but you need to plan for the meandering. If the group needs to tackle a large strategic issue, allot enough time for a free-flow discussion which can lead to great ideas and solutions. |
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About Us
Diane Amundson is the owner of Diane Amundson & Associates. She has been training, speaking and consulting for over sixteen years in the areas of leadership, creativity, generational diversity, team building, sales communication, conflict resolution and strategic planning. She has worked with Fortune 500 Companies like General Mills and Pepsi Cola along with numerous school districts in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has co-authored a book titled Success Strategies: A High Achiever's Guide to Success. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and has served as Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior at Winona State University.
She is a Rotarian that has traveled the world on humanitarian projects in Mongolia, India and Brazil.
Her style of speaking is informative and highly interactive.
Diane Amundson & Associates
Phone: (507)452-2232 Fax:(507)452-0090 24456 County Road 9 Winona, MN 55987 |
