7 Ways to Improve Meeting Productivity

How familiar does this sound? “Why do we have to have so many meetings?” or “I hate meetings.”

Anybody involved with being a leader in an organization know that meetings take up as much as 50% of the average workday. And for those that are in the start-up phase of an entrepreneurial endeavor know that number is often even higher. But how closely do we examine our meeting habits to determine the value they bring to our bottom lines?

Rereading a piece in Inc. Magazine from several years ago on the subject was a great reminder of how important it is to understand the impact meetings have on my organization’s productivity.

For example, as the first quarter of 2019 comes to a close and you look back on what went right during the first three months of the year, entrepreneurs, leaders and managers automatically look at predictable indicators, including sales numbers, achievement of cost savings or maybe the success of your marketing campaigns.

While all of these indicators are important, it is how are meetings are conducted and organized that can serve as a “real time” KPI and help steer your organization towards success. Just as you “entrepreneurial elevator pitch” can open up doors to start-up investment, good management of your organization’s meeting culture can help leaders maintain a steady cadence towards business success.

I know, meetings seem like the least important activities businesses (and their leaders) participate in. In fact, we’ve previous noted in this blog that the four major activities businesses must master are Decision Making, Organizing, Controlling and Leading. Establishing a meeting structure is an essential subset of the Management Process.

Below are 7 ways you can improve effectiveness and impact of your meetings: 

Establish the ‘why’

Make sure each meeting that is convened has a clear objective or purpose. Don’t just meet for meeting’s sake. If there is no discernible outcome that you are aiming for, the meeting isn’t worth happening.

Pick the right people

Make sure that the right people are in the meeting. That means people who have decision-making authority; people who’s creativity on the subject can offer unseen alternative solutions; and key leaders of the activities being discussed should be the core members of important meetings.

Keep it short

There are no rules that say every meeting must last at least an hour. Meetings as short as 15 minutes can be very effective, provided you prepare well for each.

Build an agenda

An agenda is important for the flow of meetings. It is also important for memorializing decisions and assignments. But maybe the most important, agendas are designed to help you (and your team) be productive.

Design the structure

Whether it’s a reporting-out meeting, an update meeting or a brainstorming session, each meeting should be designed in a way where there are pre-specifications that are measurable. This allows meeting facilitators to opportunity to evaluate the relative success of their meeting styles.

Everyone participates

If you have the right people in a room, then every voice in the room has an important contribution to the success of the meeting. Make sure everyone has an opportunity to share their perspectives.

Get agreement and follow up

An effective agenda helps participants get agreement on the relevance of specific issues, thereby allowing for the editing of items to be discussed. Once decisions are made in a meeting, there needs to be an acknowledgment of all of the follow up activities that are assigned.

 If you have other meeting design suggestions to increase productivity, please share your ideas in the comment section below.

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Picking Good Managers

Those of you familiar with business management literature are surely familiar with the works of Peter Drucker. His contributions to the advancement of the modern corporation are numerous. In fact, Drucker is often cited as the most influential thought leader in modern business management movement.

Drucker is credited with inventing the concept of management by objectives, coining the term “knowledge worker” and founding one of the first-ever Executive MBA programs for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University. He was also widely known as the grandfather of marketing and modern business consulting.

Drucker was keen on understanding the success (or failure) of businesses through the management process, which consists of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Understanding the process and its concepts is key to preparing your managers to be successful. 

The role of a manager is to engage his or her team members to perform at their best by  providing direction, offering feedback and setting goals. According to a study by Gallup, managers are often the most important hires in any organization. They account for at least 70% of employee engagement in the workplace. Yet more than 80% of the time people are hired to become managers/supervisors it is because they were good at their previous job.

However, “being good” at a task doesn’t guarantee that a person will be able to effectively lead others through that same task. The best managers are most often proficient in four skills that speak to effective leadership:

• Identifying Talent: Taking note of the skills, knowledge, education and experience necessary for the roles you have on your team.
• Setting Expectations: Effectively communicating the contributions, responsibilities and needs of an employee to ensure clear understanding of the parameters of the job. 
• Motivating Employees: Finding the most appropriate and effective ways to recognize the unique factors that motivate your employee to perform at optimal levels. 
• Developing People: Recognizing a persons abilities, strengths and tendencies in the workplace and developing a plan to leverage those qualities to improve your team's performance. 

In his book The Practice of Management, Drucker stated that “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. .... Therefore, any business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation.” So, if he were to be believed, it stands to reason why Drucker would point out the two primary activities that bridge the gap between the customer and business. And that's where managers come in.

The best managers are an organization's glue. They create and hold together the scores of people who power high-performing organizations.

Think about the best managers you've ever worked for. What were the qualities that made them so good as a leader? 

Share you thoughts about the best managers you've worked with in the Comments Section below!