1. Identify your purpose
The type of meeting will determine the process it follows. Scott Stein, author of Leadership Hacks, offers four categories: reporting or checking-in, problem-solving, decision-making, and strategy development. Have a good process in place for each, he says.
A common mistake mixed, if an issue requires resolving has just been raised at starting of the meeting, don’t try to solve it in the same session. Only select relevant people attending who have positive input with that issue, let everybody else get back to work. Next, set up a separate meeting that’s just about problem-solving around that issue.
A good time, being face-to-face input;
Identifying desired meeting outcome, asking is it to finalise a decision or to report results?
Being clear on purpose, don’t go off-track.
2. Be prepared before the meeting
Send out a written agenda before the meeting, make sure attendees know what to expect.
Include purpose, time, location, attendees and topics, as well as reading material.
Let attendees engage thinking, rather than just let attendees know meeting purpose. It allows attendees contribute during meeting.
3. Figure out who to invite
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos famously said that if you can’t feed all the people at a meeting with two pizzas, there are too many people present. Limited attendees less than 9 people in a meeting, that improving result.
Only invite people bring valuable, and allocate roles – leader, facilitator, information giver or getter, decision-maker and note taker.
4. Be on time to meetings
Many people leave desk at time meeting start, rush from meeting to meeting delayed whole schedules.
It is often first 10 minutes meeting waiting for everyone to arrive, what a waste! Setup rule start regardless – even if the most important person is absent, let us start without them.
5. Make meetings a device-free zone
Phones and computers create huge distraction, 25 minutes is a reasonable time to be away from email and voicemail. See this scene yourself “Quickly click email alert when pop up, it’s not urgent. Switch attention back to the meeting … and realise you have no idea what the speaker is talking about.” It’s about being fully present, so we don’t have to repeat ourselves and waste time.
6. Change the meeting format
Select the best meeting format for your team, achieve desired outcome. Saying, 10 minutes catch up chatting daily would be more useful than 3 hours formal meeting weekly. For instance, a quick chat in hallway for a few minutes rather than everyone positions in meeting room with pen and notebook. When we’re on our feet we have more energy and less access to distracting technology, we pay more attention to speakers, and are less concerned with discussion-stifling team hierarchy. In this way, we can easy cut hours-long meeting by 35% just talking by standing up, without pressure at the head of the table by boss.
Reference: McGeorge, D & Heath, N (2018). 6 tips to reduce the time you spend in meetings. Retrieved October 18, 2018, fromhttps://www.intheblack.com