Meetings 101 (or: How to get invited to fewer meetings)

So recently someone forwarded on a thoughtful email on meetings.

Included was a list of "Tips for Seduction" in meetings. Or how to get folks interested, direct your energy appropriately, etc. To wit:

1.Have the ability to cooperate to fulfill.
2.Remember you will also be judged by people you are not talking to in a group.
3.Have strength not to cooperate in the shit.
4.Seduction (in this context) takes time, energy, money. Be selective about who you want to seduce.
5.Speculate more and know less.
6.Speak in multiple horizons of time. (Not just the present moment.)
7.Don’t act with authority until the other party grants it to you.
8.Break the habit of opining (making assessments without grounding).
9.Be domain specific about your competence.
10.Keep in mind how important other peoples’ futures are to them.
11.Take yourself seriously.
12.Sort out what’s important that you don’t care about from what is not important that you do care about.
13.Make discussions relevant. Let individual listener or group understand the context from which you speak.
14.Speak to the other listener’s concerns – both present and future.


Umm...err...yeah. There ARE nuggets of truth in there. But I tend to like smaller words and more obvious statements. (except when I don't)

To irreverantly do the list, nee the entire email extreme injustice, I shall sum it up in three sentances.
1.) we all kvetch about "too many meetings"
2.) stop whining, start participating
3.) be a thoughtful and contributing member

(see, I wasn't kidding when I said I'd do it injustice while simultaneously being terribly irreverant. Call it a gift.)

Wry humor aside, I agreed with the email's sentiment, if not it's flowery delivery. (ha. Me, disparaging someone else's eloquent verbosity. Will pots never cease calling kettles black.)

Now I must confess to being guilty of the aforementioned kvetching, whining, and all-around meeting-victimization. However, I can say that I have (for me at least) found a solution.

That's right. I'm now meeting-empowered. I relish thought of intense and meaningful debate. (if food is provided) I leap at the mere whiff of opportunity to improve my organization's processes. (generally pulling a muscle in the process).

How did I get this way, you ask? Prescription medications, mostly. But the positive meeting outlook comes from several simple, concrete steps. I follow these both when invited to or throwing (err, hosting) a meeting. Inevitably they cause consternation, outrage, or (occasionally) grateful acknowledgement.

I try to maximize the third response.

Really.

So without furthur ado, Realist's Rules for Meetings: (not to be confused with Robert's Rules of Order. Although those are useful as well...)

1.) Publish an agenda before the meeting.
If you've been invited to a meeting that's important enough for multiple people to burn (at least) an hour's worth of company time, it is important enough to put down what's going to be discussed. If nothing else, you can wow your compatriots with a masterful command of MS Word Clipart. Seriously though ~ if you want folks to know what you're going to be talking about, prepare, and get out on time what better way then to have a general guideline for what's going on?

What? Your meeting is too freeform for an agenda? To that I say "Bunnie Slippers"! Too free form? I send out agendas for brainstorming sessions! (can't get more free form then that) You may call it retentive, but hey ~ it works.

Additionally, have you ever been in a meeting with "The Rambler", "Mr. Rabbit Trail", or the "KvetchMeister"? Sure you have. Heck, you've probably been one of those three. (I know I have. Sometimes several at once. Thankfully, my schitzophrenia was recently diagnosed.) Having an agenda is a great tool for acknowleging these helpful folks and getting the meeting back on track. ("You're absolutly right, Dan. I'd like to make sure we get out on time and we've still got a few points to cover ~ could I give you the AR to schedule a follow-up meeting on whether we should use 3 or 5 space indentation? Great!")

2.) Take minutes
How many meetings have you been in:

1. Where folks took minutes?


2. Other than doodles?


3. And published the notes afterwords?

This isn't about legalism, folks ~ it's about being human and having fickle memories. Ok, ok, it's true that some of us are gifted. My wife claims to remember what color socks I wore on our first date. I dispute this. Of course, I've been known to struggle remembering my children's names. So if I accept I can't reliably remember what I had for breakfast, how on earth do can I accurately recall important details of a meeting a week ago? A month ago? And if people remember things differently (that never happens) what better tool to clarify then whip out the notes (conveniantly in that person's inbox and in a web-accessible source control system) to double check.

I actually made myself virtually indespensible by hauling a notebook in, taking notes, and publishing them for EVERY meeting I was in on, and published them afterwords. (this was a death march project and the notes were somewhat in self-defense) So if nobody else is doing it, that means YOU GET TO!

I find doodles hard to include in typed minutes, but if you have a handy wunder-copier-to-jpeg-scanner you'll still have the bonus goodies. Or just paste in the results from a google doodle search. Whichever.

3.) Track and publish AR's (Action Required)
Call them Action Items. Call them To-Do's. Call 'em AR's.
(as in "Meeting drawing port-side captain!"
"Raise AR shields Mr. Sulu!")

Capture who has agreed to do what during the meeting. I like to make sure to get all the following:

• Assignee (who's gonna do it)


• Item (what they're going to do)


• Complete (when they're going to have it done by)

People HATE that last one. I've gotten looks that would stop a rampaging CEO when asking for a an expected completion date. This is generally followed by waiting while they make signs to ward me off as the devil's own offspring.

I don't know what it is about human nature, but folks who will happily agree to do something writhe in agony when you try and pin them down to a date. (You'd think I'd asked them to watch and review the complete Britney Spears Video Archive.)

To ease the pain, I try and make it clear that I'm not looking for a bona-fide 100% guaranteed date, but more of a SWAG. (scientific wildly approximated guess) This does two things:

1. It gives the item a greater level of accountability. Somehow having a due date - even one that changes - makes it that much more satisfying to check it off.


2. If the item is continually pushed out, (remember, you're tracking these things in meeting minutes and publishing them) it'll be apparent that what was promised is more complicated then anticipated and needs some additional help. Either that or I'm spending too much time reading Joel on Software and Slashtdot

That's it.

For those of you who skipped to the bottom to read the ending (you know who you are) I now present the brutally eviscerated summary.

1. Publish an agenda. Send it out before the meeting.


2. Take minutes.


3. Track items that have Action Required.

You have my personal, 100% money-back guarantee* that if insist on doing these three simple things your meetings will be more effective, more efficient, and more productive.

You'll also probably be invited to fewer meetings.

But then again, nothing's perfect.




*You will be refunded every cent you paid for this advice. Shipping, handling, the optional llama training fees ~ everything!