22 Tips To Help You Run More Productive Meetings

Are you unable to complete your work because meetings are eating up your time?

One study found that the average senior manager spends as much as 23 hours of their week in scheduled meetings – and the figures are even higher if you add in the impromptu gatherings that occur in most workplaces.

My experience, when I used to work for a major British credit card company, certainly bears those figures out, and I suspect that in many cases they were even higher. Only 23 hours spent in meetings would have been a good week during my last few years there.

There are, of course, logical reasons for why meetings tend to multiply.

For example, they can provide an opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other.

However, when they start to feel overwhelming or pointless, they may actually lower morale and productivity.

And one reason why they multiplied at the company I worked for is that they often ran out of time, so the only decision that ended up being made was to hold a follow-up meeting. 🙂

Can you imagine what your work day would be like if meetings were less frequent and more productive?

Here are a few suggestions for transforming your approach to meetings.

Making Meetings Less Frequent

1. Consult your boss. There are steps you can take on your own to cut down on meetings, but in reality, you’ll probably make more progress if you work as a team, so ask your boss if they’re interested in developing an overall strategy.
2. Clear the calendar. Do you attend weekly meetings whose origins are shrouded in mystery? If so, it might be time to start from the ground up by reviewing each recurring meeting to ensure that it still serves a valid purpose.
3. Call first. Make a quick phone call to see if you can resolve the relevant issues before asking your colleagues to attend a meeting. You could also try handling it on your own or asking another employee for assistance.
4. Create meeting-free days. Take a day off from the conference room. Some companies have made a commitment to at least one day without meetings each week, which gives employees more time for tasks that benefit from deeper thought and fewer distractions.
5. Opt out. If you’re tactful about it, you may be able to turn down meeting invitations without causing any friction. Explain your conflict and propose an alternative, such as using project management tools or creating internal reference materials. It also helps to have a supportive boss.

Making Meetings More Productive

1. Prepare an agenda. Keep your meeting on track by circulating a written agenda in advance. It will provide a sense of direction and help participants to stick to the main subject.
2. Explain why people are invited. Every person at a meeting should be clear on why their presence is required. Maybe they are one of the decision makers, or maybe they have information that will help make that decision.
3. Limit attendance. Most experts believe that meetings are more effective when they’re limited to about eight participants (or fewer). Larger groups often experience more difficulties with communication and decision making.

   Something to watch out for is where people from departments attend because they don’t want to miss out on what’s being discussed, even though there is nothing on the agenda that demands their presence.

4. Give deputies plenipotentiary powers. If a meeting is scheduled with the intention of making a decision and you cannot attend, it’s OK to send a deputy in your place – provided they have the authority to make that decision on your behalf. If they don’t, then you’re just wasting people’s time.
5. Shorten the time frame. Many meetings are scheduled by default for certain durations (e.g. an hour). But why schedule an hour-long meeting when 45 minutes will suffice? Having less time encourages greater focus and fewer conversations about items unrelated to the agenda. Of course, the tricky part is being able to accurately assess how long a meeting should take.
6. Start on time. Assuming you have access to the meeting room at the appointed time, do not wait for all of the attendees to turn up. There may, of course, be occasions when this is not practical, but even if the person running the meeting is late, there could be a deputy assigned so that it can start promptly.
7. Stick to the agenda. One of the many reasons meetings get derailed is because there either is no agenda, of if there is one, digressions arise that are distracting. It is the responsibility of the person running the meeting to ensure that these diversions are managed efficiently.
8. Finish early. Give your colleagues an incentive to be concise. Make it a habit to end meetings ahead of time when the work is completed. Out of the hundreds, or maybe even thousands, of meetings I attended at the company I mentioned above, I could probably count on one hand the number that ended before the allotted time was up.
9. Stand up. Try conducting some of your meetings standing up or walking around. You’ll be less likely to want to linger on a cushioned seat because you’re sleepy. You may also think and speak more clearly when you’re on your feet.
10. Ban browsing. Some companies prohibit phones and other connected devices from meetings? If this sounds too large a step to take at the moment, you may be satisfied with a policy for muting phones and using devices only for tasks relevant to the meeting.
11. Use video conferencing. Then again, some technology may enhance your meetings. Use video conference calls and screen sharing applications to keep things interesting and accomplish more in less time.

    This can be especially important where your staff are located in different offices, maybe in different parts of the company – travelling for a few hours just to attend a meeting that could have been attended via conferencing software is wasteful, in terms of time, effort, and money.

12. Provide leader training. Talk with your employer about providing training for employees who conduct meetings. It may help you to build morale and achieve your objectives.

Other Suggestions

1. Do not schedule back-to-back meetings. This happened to me frequently, and unless the second meeting is in the same room as the first one, then you cannot arrive on time at the second one if the first one runs its full length. And with many meetings overrunning, it’s an impossibility. Not only that, but back-to-back meetings do not allow for maintenance activities (e.g. grabbing a drink, going to the toilet).
2. Do not overrun. If your company is anything like the one I worked for last, there are probably not enough meeting rooms (which is why the staff restaurant was the largest and most frequently used place to conduct smallish meetings).

   If your meeting overruns, it not only affects the people in your meeting (e.g. maybe they’re going to be late for something else), but it’s also disrespectful to whoever has booked the meeting next – they are going to have to start their meeting late, but they may not be able to run late because there may be yet another meeting due to start when their finishes.

3. Turn up on time. When there are other people involved, who all have their own work to do, turning up “fashionably late” is not an option – it’s selfish and unnecessary.

   And if there is a valid reason why you’ll be late, let the organizer know. Sometimes, you’ll know in advance (e.g. if you do end up with back-to-back meetings), and sometimes it will be a last minute thing, so at least try to phone or send a message to let the organizer know.

4. Accountability. Meetings were often held as a way to share the responsibility, instead of the person who should have been accountable making that decision. In some cases, meetings could have been held to gather facts and opinions, and then the person in charge (usually a manager) should have used that information to make the decision themselves (and be accountable for it).
5. Minutes. Many (or most?) meetings should have at least some form of minutes taken – i.e. to record decisions made (and the key facts / assumptions used to justify those decisions) and notes about who will be responsible for following up on any outstanding issues (i.e. action points).

   Ideally, this should be a person who is not otherwise involved in the meeting, but this is not always practical.

   The other aspect of this is to get those minutes published and distributed as soon after the meeting as possible. I used to run a regular meeting and also took the minutes on my laptop during the meeting, and those minutes were emailed out to the attendees within half an hour of the meeting ending (assuming I wasn’t in back-to-back meetings, of course).

Conclusion

Meetings can encourage collaboration and strengthen professional relationships, but it’s in everybody’s interest to ensure that meetings are both essential and successful.

And they are definitely a double-edged sword – you cannot easily run a business without holding at least some (even self-employed entrepreneurs might need to meet with clients or suppliers occasionally), but they can quickly get out of control.

The key is to make sure you only hold a meeting when there is no other option, when there is a genuine need, and to ensure you invite the right people (and only the right people).

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. How To Run Effective Meetings