Meeting Agendas... How to Organize Around It

So you have setup a the meeting. Congratulations. Now what?

To conduct an effective meeting, you need to have a clear agenda. And not just in your own head, but a published agenda that everyone is aware of, and agrees to. 

A meeting is considered organized if we create some reading materials and send them out in advance, expecting everyone to be adults and prepare for the meeting. Now let's do a reality check - how many meetings does a person attend on average? Let's talk stats for a minute -

According to a 1998 MCI study (yes, that says 1998 - it was a different world back then - for those of you who were born and around), each day in the United States there are 11 Million meetings (Source: https://e-meetings.verizonbusiness.com/meetingsinamerica/pdf/MIA5.pdf). On a side note, how many meetings do you think we are having now in the U.S.? Senior Managers spend up to 23 hours a week in meetings (that's more than half a work week). So, all this leads me to the topic at hand - how do we get the most out of our meetings. What is the one thing we can do to take a step towards a better meeting environment?

Many times we send our materials, send the agenda, and expect people to show up prepared. We get mad when they don't, and blame how no one cares. Sound about right?

The invitees have fallen victim to the 'feed me' syndrome (commonly found in little kids). You don't have to be a powerhouse at the company to make sure people are prepared for the meeting. As the organizer of the meeting, you have to not only be organized yourself, you also have to help others get organized.

So what should you do?

When you send out the required materials, call out the sections specific people need to pay attention to. For example, if you are discussing a requirements document, there may be a sales section, marketing requirements, software architecture requirements and UI requirements. The marketing representative invited to the meeting only really needs to read the marketing section. They may want to glance over the sales section and the UI section so they know where the product is heading, and how the sales strategy ties into their marketing strategy, but that depends on how much time they have available and how much they can contribute to the other sections.

If you break down the reading materials and tell each of the invitees the sections they need to review, you may get more cooperation. Otherwise, they will see a 50 page document and decide to never have enough time to read the whole thing. This will result in people showing up with no background and no prep, and you will end up having a meeting about the meeting. You will eventually run out of time, and people will walk out frustrated, and the age old cliche of 'have  a meeting to have the meeting' will hold true. 

Just setting the agenda isn't enough. It's the first step.

Let's take the example I outlined above - if all you say is "review marketing, sales, technical and UI related requirements and answer questions to get final sign off", you have already lost the battle and set yourself up for 3-4 sessions with a bunch of folks who are showing up just because.

Try this on for size as the agenda:

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Problem Statement: Requirements are in the final stages of review - final sign off needed by all stakeholders. 

Time frame: Development team is ready to execute on these requirements in 2 days (xx/xx/xxxx)

Action Items:

Everyone: Review your sections as outlined below and send me questions or bring them to the meeting.

John (marketing): review sections 1 and 2 (pages 3 through 10).

Note: you may want to read section 5 for sales requirements but not required.

Jason (sales): review section 5 for sales requirements. May also want to review sections 1&2.

Terri (UI): Reviews designs in section 8, the problem statements of each of the sections outlined in the document.

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This will help get everyone organized, and considering the short amount of time everyone has running between meetings, they can focus on what matters to them. They will thank you for pointing out what they should be focusing on, they can read their relevant sections.

To be sure, follow up once (without being a pest) and ask everyone if they need any help or if anything was unclear. It shows you care about the topic, care about what you are calling everyone for, and care for their feedback during the meeting.

Ofcourse, after the meeting send minutes and any follow up items.

Organizing the Organizer... Meetings! Meetings! Meetings!

Having proper meeting etiquette is extremely important. It shows your professionalism, your commitment to the topic at hand, and your commitment to the company and to the person who has setup the meeting. Depending on who the meeting is with, and what your role is, you should be prepared accordingly.

If it is a meeting with a client at their location, get there early. Just getting there 15 minutes ahead of time allows you be relaxed and be in the proper frame of mind to participate. It may also let you do the greetings and introductions up front in a more relaxed environment, which in turn lightens the mood and sets a positive tone for the meeting. It also gives you time in case there is a problem - and a problem could be as simple as you spilling something on your shirt and needing to purchase a stain remover. Or needing to go to the bathroom. Or drinking some water to compose yourself. 

If you are presenting, get there even earlier - perhaps allow for 20-30 minutes. Now the courteous thing to do is to let your host know that you will be there 30 minutes earlier to setup so they are aware and ready. You may need to hook up your laptop to the projector, setup the table/easel/find markers/distribute print outs etc. Imagine if you got there with only 5 minutes to spare, connected your laptop, and the cable doesn't work? You will start stressing out, and stress others out, leaving an overall bad impression and perhaps losing a client or at best, showcasing that you cannot manage your time. You may need time to find the IT guy to help you. As a side note, what's your backup plan?

If the meeting is internal, some people are laxed about getting to it. People are fashionably late by 5-10-15-20 minutes. I have seen the meeting organizers handle this in many different ways - some close the door to the conference room and do not allow anyone else to come in after a 5 minute grace period. Others walk around frantically, looking for the missing participant(s), while some others ask to pay a penalty of $1 or something minimal as a token and acknowledgement for being late. Some others just sit in the conference room and wait... and wait... and wait. Is there a prescribed way to conduct a meeting? Ideally, everyone's there and the meeting starts on time, but that seldom happens. 

  

Source:CondeNastStore


I have personally tried all of the above with varied degrees of success. The most effective way I have experienced is to setup a reminder for the meeting in the invite (10 minutes works - 15 minutes is too long), and basically start on time. If someone comes late, do no recap the meeting and keep going. If someone is critical to the meeting and you want to make sure they are on time, check in with them 10 minutes prior so they are reminded.

And then there's the other side of the spectrum - the meeting-nazis. The meeting organizers who stomp around in anger yelling at people to join their meeting. Or worse - being passive aggressive. There is no cure and no recourse. Just decline if you can, and try not to laugh at their inability to keep their composure. Oh, and good luck!