On average, 30-60% of our working time is spent in meetings. A basic building block for working with others, meetings are one of the most frequent ways that we get things done together. Recently several clients asked for my advice about how to improve their meetings. I began writing this post to answer their questions, and discovered just how much I take for granted about designing and facilitating effective meetings. Since this is such a broad topic, this is the first of several posts to help you optimize your investment in meetings.

This is not your usual list of meeting dos and don’ts such as:

• Have an objective and an agenda
• Stick to a schedule – Start and end on time
• Ban personal technology – Ask people to silence their devices
• Establish ground rules
• Solicit participation

While important, these are simply “basic meeting hygiene” tips; they don’t set you up for consistently effective meetings. By effective I mean meetings that accomplish their purpose and desired outcomes, and where the participants have had a positive experience and feel that their time and energy were well invested.

The key to holding effective meetings is to use a robust repeatable process, without which your investment is at risk.  Meetings are one of the most basic business processes, and a component of many organizational processes.  Like all business processes, if you design in quality, you are more likely to get a quality outcome.

Right now you may be saying to yourself, “What’s the big deal?  I plan and lead meetings all the time. There’s nothing difficult about this.” I agree that it’s not difficult. But it does take careful planning and consistent attention before, during, and after the meeting.  Now ask yourself, at how many meetings do you hear others remark, “That was a good meeting. We accomplished what we set out to do and we used our time well.”

How Well Do You Plan and Facilitate Meetings?

Take a quick assessment:

For each question below, score yourself using the following scale:
Never = 1
Rarely = 2
Sometimes = 3
Often = 4
Always = 5

1. When I plan a meeting I start by thinking through the outcomes that are important. “What will be different because we met?”
2. Before establishing a meeting agenda I understand what other meeting participants think is important to accomplish.
3. When I plan a meeting I take the time to think through each individual segment of work (the agenda items), who needs to participate in which ways, what time each item might take, and how to facilitate each conversation.
4. I create a logical flow and put things in an order that allows agenda items to build on each other.
5. In the meetings I lead we complete all the agenda items.
6. Participants understand and complete the pre-work needed for the meeting to be effective.
7. When we start our meetings everyone understands why we’re there and what we need to accomplish; participants are aligned.
8. For each agenda item we clarify why it’s on the agenda, what we need to accomplish, and how we will do that.
9. Each participant in the meeting understands their role for each agenda item.
10. When we need to make a decision, we take the time to clarify the issues, hear each other, and develop options that arise from listening before making a decision.
11. When making a decision, meeting participants understand their roles and how the decision will be made.
12. At the end of the meeting, before running out of the room, we review what we did, the next steps, and if/when we plan to meet again.

(Here’s a pdf version of the assessment: Meeting Planning and Facilitation Assessment )

How did you do? If you answered 1= never, 2=rarely, or 3=sometimes to any of these questions, keep reading. You can easily improve the quality of your meetings. If most of your answers were 4 or 5, then congratulations, you are doing the basics well. You may still pick up a few good ideas below.

The 5 Components of Planning and Leading an Effective Meeting 

Once it starts, every meeting has three basic segments – a beginning, a middle, and an end. However, there are two other critical segments – planning before the meeting and follow-up after the meeting. Without a good plan to start with, the meeting itself will take more time than needed and likely not accomplish its goals. And without follow-up much of the work doesn’t actually reach fruition. Sadly, it’s not over when the meeting itself ends.

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