Meetings have always been a part of business life. We can’t avoid them. Some people wouldn’t even if they could…(you know who you are…)
These days we’ve moved from in person to virtual meetings. It seems that we’ve also relaxed the general rules associated with running a meeting. We seem so excited at the prospect of seeing another human that we are treating them as a social gathering rather than a productive enterprise.
That’s not a bad thing, only that if we make this a social gathering we may as well bring the lyrics to kumbaya, pull up beanbags and popcorn and forget about business for a while. Again, if that’s what you need, go for it!
Even in person, though, meetings can be horrendous! I’m willing to bet that almost all of you have no charter for your meetings….go on, check…I’ll wait!
Without a charter are you all clear on what you are meeting for? I don’t mean that you need a 20 page document notarised (even meetings between lawyers…), only that you would benefit from knowing why you are all there and what you are trying to achieve.
A meeting, in general, is a place to make decisions. To support that a charter gives you pre-agreed criteria. How many people need to be there to make a decision? Who gets the final say? How long will you give to make the decision? My favourite is – all material is sent an agreed period of time before the meeting and it is expected that everyone has read it! Spending time in meetings reading is boring and disrespectful to those who came prepared. A charter outlines how long before the meeting you should expect to get that material. It also tells you who prepares and sends it out and who to direct questions to. Imagine how effective your meetings would get if you already had your position on a decision ready, or you could point to specific questions you needed answers to?
And, above all, have an agenda. Stick to it so people can plan the rest of their day.
Sometimes it is helpful to get people together to discuss a plan or just to inform people, but these are far more rare than you think.
If you aren’t going to have a charter and agenda that keeps you to a plan, then at least send out coupons for popcorn in advance so that the other participants have something useful to do with their time!
