The ingredients for less stressful and more effective meetings

Do you consider meetings a waste of time? Or maybe your opinion is not as drastic but you would like them to be more productive and finish on time.

Depending on your job, your agenda may be filled with more or less meetings. Besides, if one finishes late, this might delay other issues on your calendar.

I usually find that topics, not included in the agenda, are discussed and derive in never-ending debates. The participants do not take a moment to assess whether this is the time and place for this discussion. The person going off the agenda might think that “as you are all here”; but it is necessary that the other participants allow him/her to do so.

Moreover there are other time thieves related to the focus and organisation of  meetings.

So, let us see the ingredients for our meetings to be more productive and effective instead of a stress factor.

Key questions before organising a meeting

Is a meeting really necessary?

Gathering a number of people during a certain amount of time implies a cost. So, it is advisable to consider whether a meeting is the best way to obtain results. Before organising a meeting ask yourself whether you could solve it with an e-mail or phone call for example.

What type of meeting is it going to be?

It is important to know the purpose of the meeting. What is the aim?

Is it about sharing information, announcing decisions, finding solutions to problems or working on some complex issue? The type of meeting will determine the requirements, goals, participants and meeting phases.

Under which conditions can the meeting be considered a success?

The meeting purpose will dictate the objectives to be achieved. If it is an informative meeting, success will be that the attendants remember the most important points shared at the end. In case of sharing decisions, it will be important that the attendants not only remember the decisions announced but also understand what has led to them and why they have been made. Ideally they will share the decisions but the goal is that they at least accept them.

In case of work sessions, which can be brainstormings or workshops for example, the goals can be to gather ideas and solutions to problems, make progress with a project or make decisions on next steps.

What is the agenda?

So a meeting is effective, the attendants need to know the agenda.

Does it contain all topics to be discussed?

Does each point have a reasonable time assigned? It seems that our attention diminishes after 18 to 20 minutes. Take that into account for the duration of the different presentations. If the meeting will last over hour and a half you should also plan for a break.

Do the attendants need to prepare somehow? Do the agenda or invite explain what the participants need to prepare and present?

Steps to organise a meeting

1. Arrange date and time

Looking for a day and time that suits all attendants can sometimes be a challenge and take time. I often see e-mail chains which turn into tennis matches.

Between two parties the quickest way is, in my opinion, to check the two agendas in person or on the phone.

When we wish to gather more people, and unless we are with them in a previous meeting where we can arrange the date for the next one, there are two ways to avoid e-mail chains.

In case of working with agendas like Outlook, the schedule view can give us hints on the availability of people in the same company, assuming they keep it up-to-date. From there, we may schedule the meeting or send them a request to reconfirm the option or options found.

If this is not the case, tools like Doodle can help us select dates and hours which suits us and then ask the other attendants to vote all options which fit them.

2. Book the meeting room

Before sending the invite, book a suitable room for the number of people expected and according to the set-up you need. The room capacity will vary depending on the seating arrangement, which can be boardroom, classroom, theatre or U-shape for example.

Check if the meeting room has all the necessary means for your meeting such as computer, beamer, whiteboard, flipchart, audio or videoconference.

Depending on the availability of meeting rooms suitable for your needs you might even want to check the availability before suggesting meeting dates and block the room temporarily. Once the date is confirmed, remember to unblock the bookings you will not use.

3. Send the calendar invite

Once we know the agenda, have arranged day, time and meeting room, we can send the calendar invite.

Include all the necessary information such as objective, agenda, meeting place and indications on how the participants shall prepare for the meeting. If appropriate, request punctuality.

In case there will be different contributions, it is advisable to request the participants to send their presentations or reports beforehand. That way you will have everything prepared and avoid the waste of time of changing a USB or even computer during the meeting. In this case, indicate in the calendar invite the deadline for sending the documentation.

4. Preparation of the meeting

In addition to preparing and gathering the required documentation, think if you need to organise or request the seating arrangement, technological equipment, stationery, drinks or catering.

The day of the meeting prepare the room in advance. It is better to finish early with preparation than having all participants waiting due to technical problems for example. Therefore, make sure the room is prepared according to your needs: set-up, drinks, catering, flipchart and markers, notepads etc. Check in advance that the beamer or videoconference work.

During the meeting

In order for a meeting to run smoothly and effectively, the attendants need to have prepared themselves. As well, times planned for the different speeches or presentations should be controlled.

Unless a key participant is missing, I suggest to start the meeting at the scheduled time and not to repeat topics already discussed. In my experience, the people who arrive late are usually the same. If one waits for them once and again or brings them up to date, they will not make the effort to be punctual next time, in my opinion. Meanwhile, the good timekeepers may ask why they are on time if they have to wait for others or listen twice to things.

During meetings, topics not considered on the agenda may come up. Before straying off the agenda, I recommend the attendants decide if it is necessary to discuss the topic at that point, adjusting the planned agenda, or if it can be dealt with in a specific meeting or by e-mail for example.

Ideally a person takes on the part of meeting moderator. This person will have a neutral role and be in charge of clarifying the meeting objective, control the time, ensure the participation of all attendants and visualise results. This person can also take the meeting minutes, although it does not have be that same person.

The meeting minutes

In order for the important points such as decisions and next steps agreed to be reflected, a person should be appointed to take the minutes and the type of minutes need to be decided.

We may differentiate between four important types of minutes:

1. Literal minutes

These minutes gather chronologically and word-for-word all discussions and people involved. This can be necessary for example in assemblies, general or board meetings.

2. Minutes of negotiation or narration

This type of minutes is used for summarising objectively conversations and negotiations. It can be appropriate for complicated negotiations with legal consequences. The discussions will be gathered in third person concisely and completely, although not literally. The minutes shall contain decisions made, tasks commissioned, next steps as well as deadlines or meeting dates agreed. If the attendants sign the minutes, the decisions and declarations of intent will be binding.

3. Brief minutes

These minutes are appropriate for regular and common meetings. The idea is to summarise the discussion points, decisions, next actions and deadlines or dates.

4. Minutes of resolution

This type of minutes only gathers the results and decisions made. It can be suitable for project meetings, announcements of decisions, company results, annual general meetings or other statutory meetings.

It is advisable to agree on a deadline for sending the minutes to the attendants after the meeting. That way the participants can check if they have written down everything that affects their work and tasks to do.

Regular meetings

For recurring meetings I recommend to set up a calendar in advance. Taking into account the time it takes to arrange a date between certain number of attendants and that agendas fill up as time goes by, we will ensure that everyone has the meetings scheduled in their calendars.

It takes longer to find a suitable date on the go a few days or weeks before that recurring meeting should take place than only having to postpone occasionally one meeting because something unavoidable has come up.

Nevertheless I also recommend to check from time to time whether recurring meetings are still necessary and helpful.

Additional hints for less stressful meetings

For the talkative

• Respect others’ and your own time. If meetings overrun the time scheduled this can lead to delays in the agenda of all attendants, yours included.
• Do you feel the urge of commenting some issue not contemplated on the agenda because the people you want to share it with are gathered? Then first ask yourself: Is it really necessary and appropriate to discuss the topic here and now?
• Do not interrupt others because you have just come up with something brilliant you do not want to forget. Write it down and share it when it is your turn or after the meeting, with the people concerned, verbally or in writing. Assuming that your contribution is still of interest or importance.

For the restless or stressed

• Are you getting nervous because the meeting or speech is taking longer without assessing if it is an important topic?
• Instead of looking at the clock, turn the occasion into an exercise of mindfulness and active listening. Concentrate on the here and now. Pay attention to what the other person is saying both verbally and non-verbally, that is through posture and gestures.

Recap

In order for a meeting to be effective we need to pose some key questions. Moreover, it is necessary to prepare the meeting well, ensure that it runs smoothly and that at the end all attendants know the decisions and next steps.

If you can get help from a secretary, I recommend you entrust him/her with the meeting organisation, from arranging a date to preparing the room, or even taking the minutes. Secretaries are experts in this type of tasks. And meanwhile you may dedicate yourself to other issues like preparing the meeting content for example.

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