By Sandra Naranjo Bautista

Are you frustrated about having too many meetings? When I worked in government, I remember feeling as if there were meetings ALL THE TIME. So much so, that sometimes it felt that if you were not in a meeting you ‘weren’t working.’ When in fact, it was exactly the opposite.

What about bad meetings? The only thing worse than too many meetings are bad meetings. Those that take away your time with no purpose. Even worse if you are the one leading them. We all have been there. After many failed attempts, I learned a couple of tricks that helped me improve my meetings. In this article I share the step-by-step process I used as a Minister. I also created free templates you can use to guide you through this process. My intention is to share what has worked for me and motivate you to find something that works for you.

Step 1: Plan your meeting

For starters, ask yourself if you really need a meeting, then ask yourself why, and then why again. If the answer is yes, then set aside time to plan your meetings. It doesn’t have to be super long, but you have to do it. If possible, write it down in a short outline. Believe me, it makes a difference. To facilitate this process, I created some templates you can download here. For each meeting you need to know:

• What is the objective of the meeting? Your intention. Think of it as the concrete result you want by the end of the meeting. It could be to have all the information required to make a decision on a project, or to plan your activities with your team. A clear objective will help you keep the meeting to the point and to manage the time during the meeting.  

• Who needs to be in the meeting? Based on your meeting’s goal, think of all the people that you will require to make that intention a reality. It could be people leading a project, those responsible for budget, communication, legal issues, etc. The list of participants can grow very quickly, so the best way to keep it short is to go back to your objective. Another rule of thumb could be Amazon’s two pizza rule: ‘no meeting should be so large that two pizzas can’t feed the whole group’.

• What is your meeting agenda? Include the topics you will address on the meeting and the estimated time per item. Don’t forget to add time to wrap up the meeting. I know you know, but I’ll say it anyway.

Also, consider the time required for the presentation, for discussion and to transition between presenters.

Keep presentations as short as possible. Ideally, no more than 15 minutes. Obviously, you adapt depending on the topic. However, short presentations force the presenter to do the heavy lifting before the meeting and to prepare the key points in advance. If there is something that requires a deeper discussion it might be better to send it to the participants before the meeting. As you can imagine, not everyone will read it but the brief presentation could address that.

• Are there potential areas of conflict? Think of potential problems and have a strategy ready to address those. If there could be a disagreement, it’s best to have both parties in the meeting so you can make a decision together.

Step 2: Share your outline with the participants of the meeting

Meetings work best when everyone knows what the meeting is about, why they are there and what is expected from them. Make sure to send the information and any supporting documents beforehand so people can be prepared. You could share a version of the meeting planner template.

Step 3: Run your meeting with your goal in mind

Introduction

• Start by reminding everyone the objective of the meeting.
• Do a quick overview of the agenda.
• Set some ground rules:
  • Emphasize on the time for each presentation. You or someone on your team can check the time for each presentation.
  • If you are running out of time, make sure to make adjustments to address the key points.

Presentations

• Listen to the presentations. I personally like to take notes of the key points and important decisions.
• Moderate the discussion and keep everyone focused on the objective. I like to gently remind everyone that it’s not necessary to repeat what someone else has said but to build on the conversation. Also, be ready to move the discussion forward if you are going in circles.

Conclusions

For me the most effective meetings are those that have rich discussions AND end in concrete results.

I personally like to finish meetings summarizing the key points of the discussion. I use the meeting outline and my own notes as a reference. This part is short and to the point. I also like to double check with everyone if I’ve missed something, so we are all on the same page. These templates can guide you in the process (you can download them here).

I always add action items at the end. This is the section that I found makes a difference. Don’t skip it, even if you are running out of time. Everyone needs to be clear on what decisions were made and who is responsible for doing what and by when. If you don’t have a concrete deadline, agree on a date when the other party will give you a timeline, and follow up on that.

Finally, the secret to successful meetings is to follow up on the decisions made. When I was a Minister, I always had someone in my team whose role was to follow up on the decisions we made. I was that person when I worked for the President of Ecuador and I still do it now. Follow up translates ideas and action.

I hope you find this helpful and don’t forget to grab your free templates. If there is something else you do, let me know. I am always eager to learn new things and to keep improving my own methods.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts on how to write effective presentations and how to run your staff meetings (even with small teams). If there is something else that would be helpful for you, send it to me here.

Photo by Benjamin Child on Unsplash