With only so many hours in the workday, dropping everything for another meeting is a painful, all-too-common occurrence. In fact, 47 percent of employees said having to attend too many meetings is their biggest-time waster, according to Salary.com's global Wasting Time at Work 2012 survey.
The sheer quantity of meetings can destroy productivity, and their lack of quality doesn't help either: 37 percent of respondents to an August TrackVia survey said at least half the time they spent in meetings was wasted. Less than 7 percent said meetings were totally productive.
Treating each meeting as a mini-project—including proper planning, execution and lessons learned—can transform it into the constructive and collaborative endeavor it ought to be.
Here are five ways project leaders can maximize the value of any meeting.
1 Plan Ahead
There is a tendency on project teams to call meetings for almost any reason and without forethought—an approach that doesn't benefit anyone, says Luis Alejandro Flores, PMP, project manager officer in the project management office at Blue Label Telecoms in Mexico City, Mexico. “The outcome for many of those meetings is nothing, just meeting minutes that will end up consuming space in the mailbox, or simply an agreement that another meeting has to be scheduled,” he says.
Planning a meeting in advance enables project managers to determine the outcomes they hope to achieve and decide who needs to be at the table to achieve them. Once confirmed, consider the most appropriate way to bring people together, whether it's video conferencing or face-to-face.
The details matter. Michael Old, PMP, project manager at medical supply manufacturer Smith & Nephew, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, is in charge of a virtual team with members across the United States. For his weekly conference call with his team, he creates a thorough plan. “I don't think it's possible for me to be over-prepared for my weekly call,” he says. “I think through all of the tangents that could come up, and I think about how to deal with them.”
2 Establish an Agenda
No matter the type of meeting—in-person, teleconference or web—all of the stakeholders need to know the discussion topics beforehand so they can prepare their contributions, Mr. Flores says.
Lay out these topics in a thoughtful and detailed agenda distributed well before the meeting. “An agenda should tell its own story: where you start, where you go and where you end,” says Julia Goodman, senior coach and founder of Personal Presentation Ltd., a personal communications coaching organization in London, England.
An agenda drives the discussion and keeps attendees focused. “A successful meeting means I know what the purpose of the meeting was, I was aware of the importance of each agenda item and a great number of the agenda items are relevant to me or my team,” Mr. Flores says.
Allowing participants to contribute to the agenda prior to meeting will make them feel more invested, and can head off last-minute topics that pop up and bloat the meeting.
The agenda is also essential to staying on course. “Treat the meeting as a mini-project and assign time estimations to each topic,” suggests Mr. Flores. “Set the timeframes for agenda items and stick to them.” If necessary, take non-agenda items “off-line” to be discussed at the end if there's time or at a later date.
3 Stick to the Program
Though it may sound basic, punctuality can pay dividends. When meetings don't start on schedule—due to late arrivals, for example—it becomes that much harder to keep everyone focused.
“To arrive on time shows cooperation and respect for the other project collaborators’ time,” says Akira Bloise, PMP, coordinator for project planning and control at GeoHidra Consultores, C.A. in Caracas, Venezuela.
Meeting governance keeps things on track, Mr. Flores says. That means not only starting and ending on time, but also sticking to each topic's assigned duration and scheduling another working session if the discussion is running long.
Sometimes it makes sense to address an item on the spot, even if it's not on the agenda, but there should be parameters around this as well. “New topics can be brought to the table by the consent of all stakeholders and not be postponed if everyone is able to contribute,” Mr. Flores says. “Otherwise, it should be treated as a separate meeting.”
Finally, adhering to the set schedule will earn the thanks of attendees, who will be appreciative that their time wasn't wasted.
“You need to be familiar with your team, know the people who are likely to take your meeting off track and be prepared to deal with them.”
—Michael Old, PMP, Smith & Nephew, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
“A successful meeting means I know what the purpose of the meeting was, I was aware of the importance of each agenda item and a great number of the agenda items are relevant to me or my team.”
—Luis Alejandro Flores, PMP
4 Manage Participants
Be selective when deciding whom to invite—having too many people or potential productivity blockers are typical problems, Ms. Goodman says. If critical stakeholders can't attend, reschedule; don't go through with it just because it's already on the calendar.
When Mr. Old holds his weekly project call, he makes sure that critical team members can attend. “Facilities managers, campus security teams, the facilities project manager and IT analysts are on the call,” he says. “I want my team to have a sense of cohesiveness, and for every person to understand what everyone else is doing.”
An assortment of stakeholders brings a smorgasbord of personalities to manage in one meeting room. “Sometimes, one or two people can dominate a meeting, which makes others feel they don't have a voice,” Ms. Goodman says. “The person facilitating the meeting has to be confident enough to help other team members speak up.”
Effective meeting leaders can't be afraid to gently but firmly halt disruptive behaviors—such as side conversations or use of technology during meetings—that threaten the timetable and agenda.
“You need to be familiar with your team, know the people who are likely to take your meeting off track and be prepared to deal with them,” Mr. Old says.
5 Evaluate
When evaluations take place via informal conversations in the hallway or at the water cooler, bad meetings never improve. Instead, a formal and confidential feedback process enables real changes to be made, says Mr. Flores.
Even building time into the agenda to evaluate the meeting can help. “After the meeting is over, take some time to debrief and determine what went well and what could have been done better,” Ms. Bloise suggests. Allowing attendees to speak their minds and give feedback will help them feel that their opinion is being heard.
That, in turn, can transform meetings from time-wasters into success drivers.
“A project manager needs to persuade not only the sponsors,” Mr. Flores says, “but all of the stakeholders, that having effective meetings will have a positive impact on the project, on morale and on the company as a whole in the end.” PM