By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
July 12, 2013
Meetings are powerful. Good meetings forge strong relationships, clarify objectives, solve problems, and spur innovation.
Bad meetings are terrible. They frustrate those in attendance, sap energy and enthusiasm, and waste precious time and money. Few people look forward to meetings because most meetings are unproductive and unpleasant.
Meetings can be both effective and enjoyable. Here are simple principles to reduce the number of meetings you have and to improve those you do have.
Begin the meeting with genuine prayer, not a pro forma exercise in religiosity. Remember, “the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Since this is true, ask the Lord to grant you wisdom and providential guidance in your deliberations and decisions.
Do not meet just because it is on the schedule. Generally, regularly scheduled meetings are a bad idea. For meetings to be useful for all in attendance, they need to be necessary. Prior to scheduling a meeting, ask: “Does this topic require a sit-down meeting, or could it be handled with a phone call, a brief office visit, a stand-up meeting, or an email?” I have made a practice of pre-scheduling an Executive Team meeting each month to protect the time on the calendar should a meeting be necessary. I cancel it, however, unless there is a clear need to meet, as described below.
Clarify why you are scheduling the meeting. Knowing the objective—reviewing a policy issue, clarifying goals, resolving a problem—is essential but not sufficient. You need to be clear why that objective is valuable and worth the time of a sit-down meeting. This is the meeting’s intent. Without a compelling intent, you may run an efficient meeting and still produce ineffective or minimal outcomes. Pre-scheduled faculty meetings often suffer from an ill-defined intent and typically end up being both inefficient and ineffective at moving the school forward.
Are the right people in the meeting? Do not frustrate people by including them in meetings unless their presence is vital. Having people attend merely to receive information is probably not a good use of their time—information can be conveyed in a memo or an email. Where interaction and in-depth explanation are needed, a meeting may be appropriate. If the meeting exists to make a decision, ensure that only decision-makers are present and that they are prepared to make an informed decision. Avoid what David Pearl calls “meeting tourists.”
Do not try to do everything yourself. Senior leadership should delegate the role of meeting facilitator to another team member and assign someone the responsibility of taking detailed notes. Senior leaders should focus on asking good questions, listening carefully, and providing top-level input.
Encourage everyone’s involvement, especially your wise introverts. Extroverts will speak up readily, but many quieter members will not. It is often those who are “quick to hear but slow to speak” who have the best insights. Draw them into the discussion and the decision-making.
Be creative with the types of meetings you have. As David Pearl observes:
The word “meeting” covers a huge range of diverse interactions. Discussion, debate, and decision are all different. Problem-solving is quite distinct from team-building. You would not mix Italian, Mexican, and Indian food in a single meal. When we mix these meeting types, the results are equally unappetizing and indigestible. The simple rule of a healthy meeting is: do one thing well.
You can have fewer but more productive meetings. Maintain a clear focus and intent, include only the right people, and consider alternatives to the traditional sit-down meeting. Never meet simply because it is on the calendar. Purpose and need, not the calendar, should determine whether a meeting is called.
