How do you honestly feel about most meetings you participate in? If your experience has been similar to that of most people, some descriptors that likely come up include “frustrating,” “waste of time,” “boring,” “unproductive,” “drawn out,” or maybe “necessary evil.”
If you feel that way, I get it. I feel much the same about many of the meetings I get called into.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. Meetings don’t have to suck. Indeed, well run, effective meetings tend to be fun, enriching, and highly productive, rather than draining, depleting, and feeling like a waste of time.
Making our meetings effective and engaging isn’t rocket science, but it does require intention, energy, and work. The extra work is well worthwhile, since effective meetings not only serve us well in terms of increased productivity, they also build relationships and boost morale.
To help set you up for success in making your meetings count, here are a few key pieces of advice I hope you put into practice.
Lead with purpose
Before you call a meeting, a key first question to ask yourself is What is the purpose of this meeting?
To help you get clear on the meeting purpose, it can be helpful to clarify what the outcomes of a successful meeting will be. What will have been achieved by the end of the meeting?
If you cannot clearly state the purpose of the meeting and enunciate clear, tangible desired meeting outcomes, you are not ready to call a meeting.
If you get called into a meeting and the purpose and goals of the meeting aren’t clear, a good question to ask the meeting host is What is the purpose, and what are the goals of this meeting? If the meeting host cannot answer those questions, you might suggest they clarify those things for all participants ASAP and/or even kindly suggest they reschedule the meeting when desired outcomes are more clear.
Everything else about a meeting falls out from the purpose, so don’t pass go until you are clear about what the meeting is designed to achieve.
Ask yourself: Does this need to be a meeting?
Once you are clear about your purpose in hosting a meeting, the next question to ask yourself is Does this need to be a meeting?
The only reason for bringing people together in the same physical or virtual space at the same time is because you need them to interact with each other, such as to work together to make decisions or figure out how to solve a group problem. If people don’t need to interact with each other, they don’t need to meet.
For example, if your purpose is simply to update people (which, unfortunately, is the focus of many meetings), you don’t need a meeting—instead, you can send out a short memo or a video or audio recording with the information people need to know. If you want people to engage in dialogue around those updates and/or have time for Q&A, send people a memo or recording before the meeting, then use your time together to engage in meaningful ways around whatever update was shared. Don’t waste precious time together doing things that really don’t require everyone to be in the same place at the same time.
Here’s a free quick, fun, and effective quiz to help you answer the question of whether you need a meeting: Should it be a meeting?
Structure your meetings to liberate effective group work and dialogue
Once you’ve established a clear purpose for your meeting—one that requires bringing people together to interact with one another and, thus, merits a meeting—you need to figure out how to structure the meeting to set people up for success in achieving that purpose.
Without good structure, meetings tend to devolve into a “goat rodeo:” a disorganized situation in which the loudest voices dominate, only certain perspectives are heard and considered, and the group works inefficiently—and often ineffectively.
Sound familiar?
Not only does a thoughtfully structured meeting help us avoid the goat rodeo, it also can create space for all voices to be heard and considered, distribute power across all participants, and support effective conversation and problem-solving. In other words, effective structure liberates effective group work, dialogue, and innovation.
One of the best resources I have found for structuring meetings is the free online Liberating Structures toolkit. I encourage you to check it out and to use these structures in your meetings and group work.
Use our PACER handout and effective meetings cheat sheet to set you up for success
In addition to the Liberating Structures toolkit, here are a few additional EDR program resources that can help you design and run efficient, effective, and engaging meetings.
- PACER worksheet: Use this worksheet to help you think through the key elements of effective meetings, or what is known as PACER: purpose, agenda, code of conduct, expectations, and roles and responsibilities
- Facilitating effective meetings cheat sheet: Use this cheat sheet to help you think through the things that go into preparing for, conducting, and following up on meetings to make them as effective and meaningful as possible.
Set aside time for meeting preparation
Thinking through PACER and how to structure your meeting to make it as efficient and effective as possible takes time and thought. I plan on an average of two hours of meeting preparation for every hour of meeting I facilitate. That is why I have taken to saying (and firmly believe) that most of the meeting happens before the meeting.
I encourage you to set aside meeting preparation time on your calendar to be successful in making your meetings count.
Less but better
A final key piece of advice for running effective meetings is to host as few meetings as possible and make those you run as efficient and effective as possible. In other words, focus on “less but better,” and use people’s time well.
Failing to do so comes at a cost. Ineffective meetings, including meetings that don’t really need to be meetings, waste people’s time, lead to people getting jaded about their work, make people feel disconnected, and ultimately lead to burnout.
To improve your team dynamic, efficacy, and productivity, I encourage you to consider and implement the ideas above. Remember that it is important to make your meetings count!
If you or your team are interested in learning more, the EDR team offers tailored trainings, including training on how to run effective meetings. For more information, email us.
Danya Rumore, Ph.D., is the director of the Environmental Dispute Resolution program in the Wallace Stegner Center at the University of Utah. She is a research professor in the S.J. Quinney College of Law and a clinical associate professor in the city and metropolitan planning department at the University of Utah. She teaches about, practices, and conducts research on conflict, negotiation, dispute resolution, leadership, and collaborative problem solving. She is also the founder and a co-director of the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative.
About the EDR blog: Hosted by the Wallace Stegner Center’s Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) program, the EDR blog shares ideas, tools, and resources to cultivate a culture of collaboration and help readers be more skillful in working through conflict. Read additional blog posts at edrblog.org.