There is no escape from meetings. In the corporate world, a day is a continuum of meetings. This is because they are important to get things done. A senior leader in an organisation needs to ensure coordination across teams, and meetings can be more effective than just emails or Slack/WhatsApp messages going back and forth.
My approach to meetings is two-fold: to focus on the pre-meeting, and then the post-meeting. Think of the “pre” as meaning preparation. Every meeting needs some homework to be done so it doesn’t descend into a rambling match. At the start of each day, I will list key points that I need to make, understand or ask during the meeting. This makes me go into the meeting with a plan – even if it is not a meeting I have called. At the end of the day, I will go through the meetings, and list out key points from them – these could be ideas that came, follow-ups that need to be done, or commitments that I made which need to be kept.
None of this is possible if one doesn’t have a notebook (or digital device) to make notes. I have gone into many meetings and am shocked when I see people go through and not make any notes. Either they have incredible memory or they don’t really care about the outcome. Most often, it is the latter.
During a meeting, I make detailed notes. It keeps me focused and it ensures I can replay the meeting at the end of the day. It also helps me make side notes about ideas that need to be explored or a memory which flitted past and needs to be explored later. So, even as I let my mind wander occasionally, the note taking ensures I stay focused through the meeting.
If I am running a meeting, there are a set of principles that I follow: the meeting must start and end on time, at the start of the meeting (ideally, before) everyone needs to be told the agenda and flow, and everyone present must be given an opportunity to speak and voice their views.
If I am a participant, I ensure that I have a few key points listed as part of the pre-meeting work. When speaking, I try to make sure I am not interrupting someone – this is much easier to do in physical meetings than on Zoom where the visual cues are missing. I also do my best to not raise my voice to make a point just because I have the highest designation; this is not always possible because at times the silliness of others just gets to me.
What I like best are the customer meetings. I pay careful attention to the words and phrases they use, especially when describing their problem or discussing the product. Listening to customers is the way I have got many ideas. The pandemic years have shifted some meetings online and more often than not, I end up doing meetings where the others have their video turned off. (I really cannot believe that there are still unsolved “bandwidth issues” more than two years after the start of the pandemic and the cheapest Internet access in the world.) Speaking to a black window takes away some of my energy, but I have decided that it is too rude to force others to switch on their video. For my part, I always make sure I join meetings with video on, unless the number of attendees exceeds 25.
A final piece of advice from a Wall Street Journal article: “There are four basic types of meetings that managers should convene, Ms. Rita King says. Learning meetings generate knowledge. Innovation meetings generate ideas. Commitment meetings generate decisions. And alignment meetings generate a road map. Each type has an objective, such as solving a specific problem or generating actionable ideas. A lot of bosses skip the first three types of meetings and spend most of their time convening big groups for alignment meetings that fail to produce the intended results… Great meetings are small, fast and don’t involve status updates.”
So, meetings are a necessity. It is up to each of us to create our own system to increase their effectiveness. Preparation and post-meeting reflection are a must. Putting across our views and thus participating actively is the approach to follow, rather than being passengers with minds wandering elsewhere.
PS: My previous post on “One Meeting, One Idea.”
