Meeting tips on how to lead better meetings.
We call them rethinking meetings
These meeting tips go beyond the usual, you know: send the invitation on time, appoint a secretary, send minutes. We're not saying the usual tips aren't important, but others can tell you better...
Instead, we want to tell you the little simple truths that we have discovered have the greatest impact on the perceived quality of the meeting. Actually, there are no secrets. What determines whether a meeting is perceived as good by all participants is usually whether all participants in the meeting have contributed to concrete results. But that is easier said than done. That is why we have compiled the list below. The goal is for the advice to be as concrete and easy to understand as possible. Do you agree? Feel free to share your thoughts. Do you disagree? Feel free to share your suggestions for improvement as well. There is no final boss in meetings, every meeting can always be a little better. Ours too!
Question the meeting: is it really necessary? And does everyone really need to be there?
Sometimes no meeting is better than a bad meeting. If the meeting doesn’t have a clear purpose, it’s usually a good idea to cancel it and wait until you have a clear idea of why you need to have this meeting. Sometimes the issue itself is so small that it’s really just a conversation between two people. Or the participants are just so stressed that another meeting will only add to the stress. Send out the meeting documents for your own reading instead. Or record a short video where you go over the most important information points. Or a short podcast that people can listen to while they’re taking a walk.
Also question whether everyone really needs to be in the meeting. Go through all the meeting participants and ask the question “why should he or she be in?” If you can’t give a clear reason, they probably shouldn’t be.
But sometimes no meeting is the worst option, for example if a conflict has arisen and there is a need to speak out. These meetings are often the hardest to hold, but also the most rewarding. But also note that in difficult meetings it is even more important not to invite those who do not need to be there. A simple rule of thumb could be to treat each meeting as if it were about a sensitive issue.
Distinguish between meetings, reconciliations and presentations, and name the meeting accordingly.
We use the word meeting for all sorts of things. It wouldn't hurt to have a larger vocabulary to describe what type of meeting we are referring to. Is it a strategic meeting, or a tactical one? Is it an information meeting, a presentation, a reconciliation, a conversation, a discussion, a collaboration exercise, a point of view inventory, etc. A meeting can aim to make decisions, or just to create unity, or both.
Also, feel free to name the meeting after what it is about. I think many people are happy to go to a “we agree on our future plans and decide on which investments we will make” meeting. Significantly more than those who want to go to a “budget meeting”. There is a big difference between going to a “Friday meeting” or a “brief reconciliation of workloads and priorities for next week” (then the meeting will probably get a different name in popular parlance, but it doesn’t hurt to have it called what it is on the calendar).
Different meeting needs require different meeting length and structure.
For some reason, almost all meetings tend to be scheduled to last about an hour. It's really strange. Different meetings require different amounts of time. There are things that can be discussed in 3 minutes. There are meetings that need to last several days. A good idea might be to not only name meetings differently but also make a clear distinction between them. An example of division could be daily check-ins on a standing basis (max. 15 minutes about what we do), tactical weekly meetings (max. 45 minutes about how we do it), monthly strategy meetings (max. 2 hours about why we do it), quarterly meetings in another location (2 days about what we're going to do next). Different things belong in different meetings, so if a strategy issue arises in the tactical weekly meeting, it can, and should, be tabled (fancy meeting word for moving) to the monthly strategy meeting, while tactical and purely operational issues should not take up time from the strategy meetings.
The model above is loosely interpreted from Death by Meeting by Patrick M Lencioni.
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(but summarize the key points just in case) Be clear that those who have not prepared will not get as much out of or be able to contribute as much to the meeting. If everyone is already informed about the issue, everyone will also have started to formulate their position on the issue, which means that the meeting time can be used more effectively to build consensus or make decisions.
For those individuals who, for various reasons, still fail to absorb the information in advance, there are different ways to handle it, perhaps a pre-meeting with the individual is needed, or a policy change: in our workplace, being ready for meetings is a salary-based requirement.
Set aside time to plan the meeting in a structured way.
It is a fact that it takes longer to plan a meeting than to execute it. According to our own meeting research, the meeting effect increases with the square of the number of engaged participants multiplied by the difference between the meeting planning time and the meeting execution time. In short: if you under-plan the meeting, you risk a negative meeting effect: i.e. you waste the participants' time with the square of their number!
When planning the meeting, you can, for example, use the Hollywood method and our nifty Excel template.
The Hollywood method effectively guides you to a functional why-how-what flow and stimulates empathy and relevance. (Link to read more about the Hollywood method coming)
Our Excel template for meeting planning can ensure that there is indeed time for everything you want to do, and helps you note deviations from the schedule. (Link to our Excel template coming)
Inventory expectations to anchor the meeting = the easiest check-in exercise
Start all meetings by asking everyone what their expectations are for the meeting. If it's quiet, you can assume that no one knows why they are there. (or that no one dares to talk in this forum, which is if possible even worse conditions for a good meeting) and then you need to be able to talk about it, or consider moving the meeting until you can answer why.
For the sake of argument, let's assume that everyone knows why they're there. Then you can go around letting everyone have a say early on by having them respond in one or more words to what they expect from this meeting.
Note the participants' words, preferably so that everyone can see it during the meeting. Now the meeting is anchored in the participants and everyone can participate and contribute!
Then end the meeting by going over the expectations again with the participants to ensure that they are met. With a simple: “how did we meet the expectations and have any new ones arisen” you will also get “instant feedback” on the meeting and also find out if more meetings are needed to work on any area further.
Don't avoid constructive conflict, practice utilizing it!
The opposite of meetings is quarrels, chaos and war. Meetings are a constructive way to deal with contradictions and channel them into constructive force. Part of what makes meetings good is that we are allowed to have different opinions in them. What makes meetings better is precisely if we can use them to create consensus on expectations. But this also means that conflicts, or at least discussions, will inevitably arise. Some belong to the meeting, some concern only a few or perhaps only two individuals.
Practice interrupting and redirecting or moving things that don’t belong in the meeting to another forum. It ’s a skill that can be practiced to say, “Wait, how does this relate to what we’re talking about now?” or “Stop, we’ll pause there, that sounds like the basis for a separate meeting.” Suggest that individuals book a new meeting immediately after this, and offer to help facilitate, if needed.
Dare to skip Power Point. There are alternatives such as a whiteboard or putting up slides on the wall.
It's easy to get the impression that meetings almost require a PowerPoint presentation. But PowerPoint is a presentation tool, not a meeting tool. PowerPoint works quite well for structuring your thoughts when you're planning what to say in a lecture, where the information comes in a linear flow. But that's also the big problem with PPT: not all meetings follow the same flow. Sometimes you need to take an unforeseen detour via something else, or quickly jump back and forth between a number at the beginning and one at the end, or just be able to write something somewhere where it's visible throughout the meeting.
But it's tempting to start planning the meeting in PowerPoint out of habit, and even if you have, you can avoid using PowerPoint, for example by printing out all the slides and putting them up along the walls of the room. This allows you to physically move back and forth in your flow. Participants can also easily see where they are in the agenda, and for restless people it can be incredibly liberating to know that you are 2 slides from the next break, or 5 slides from the end of the meeting.
Another way to avoid PowerPoint is of course to plan the meeting in another tool, such as our meeting planning template, or in a regular text document, or with paper and pen. Or perhaps on a whiteboard together with others who can provide input on structure and content.
Democratize the word so that everyone has a say. Use tools like post-its and active leadership to create security.
Good meetings are defined by everyone participating and contributing to concrete results. But not everyone is comfortable expressing themselves in large groups. It's easy for those with extroverted traits and strong voices to take over the entire meeting, and then the meeting only utilizes half the skills in the room.
As a meeting leader, you can actively distribute the floor, or appoint someone to help count how many times different participants are allowed to speak and then ask specific questions to those who have not said anything.
This is also where exercises involving post-its come in, it's a way to let everyone reflect and share their thoughts.
Another part of getting everyone to dare to be active in meetings is creating psychological safety in the work group so that everyone dares not only to contribute but also to challenge with their thoughts. But sometimes it's just that some people simply don't want to talk in meetings, a skilled meeting leader notes this and asks about their thoughts afterwards.
The most powerful meeting tool: ask powerful questions!
The biggest challenge that meetings have is that we humans have a tendency to start generating answers as soon as we get the chance. Good meetings are more about asking questions. So-called Powerful Questions are often the best way to lead meetings and to unlock a meeting that is stuck in a discussion, issue or an unsolvable problem. There are plenty of examples of Powerful Questions to find online, but some powerful question examples to always have in your back pocket could be:
What are we not saying out loud right now?
What feels difficult – and why?
How do you view the situation from your role?
What can we learn from this? What do you need to move forward?
And if nothing else, you can have as a constant ace up your sleeve the most powerful question of them all: why?
Make better use of collective intelligence - collaborate across creative spaces.
The whole purpose of meetings is to take advantage of the fact that there are more than one of us, so it would be a shame to only use our voices for information sharing, which is usually what happens when meeting participants sit in a circle with their own meeting notes in front of them. Instead, gather around the same whiteboard and let everyone participate with a pen to increase understanding of how the individuals in the meeting interpret the problem. Or let everyone scribble on a huge sheet of paper while they talk. Because it is not only when we hear, but also when we see, the thoughts of others that we get new ideas and thoughts ourselves. The point is to be creative in order to find ways to increase creativity.
Let others lead the meeting, and train yourself in meeting leadership
Leading meetings is a crash course in leadership. You practice exactly the same skills that you need in other contexts as a leader: clarity, empathy and creating conditions for collaboration. You become a better leader by practicing leading meetings. But it doesn't just apply to you, but to others around you as well. So here's a suggestion: let others lead your meetings! Take turns, test, vary and above all give and receive feedback. You'll get better meetings, better leaders and a better organization. Triple-win!
But note that it is not the same as everyone wanting or expecting to have to lead meetings. There are those who do not have the ambition or the will, and then coercion can be directly bad for both the individual and the meeting.
Use Energisers in moderation.
So-called meeting energizers can be fantastic! In other words, small icebreaker exercises that aim to increase energy and engagement in the meeting. In the right group dynamics, they can be both liberating and entertaining, and lead to more creative group dynamics. But be careful, in other groups they can have the exact opposite effect, creating anxiety and performance anxiety instead. Some people don't want to pretend to be an animal jumping over a crocodile, while others think that laughter yoga is a direct violation of privacy. Take the time to think through and evaluate which exercises are right for your group, or whether there are other ways to achieve the same results. A simple tip: in insecure groups, simple exercises are usually best. Asking everyone to do ten squats in rhythm may be just the right step outside the comfort zone for some, but the question is what the exercise does for the group dynamics in general.
Often, meeting props, like hats, mustaches, and odd gadgets, can serve a similar function but be more inclusive. It's strange, but it's easier to present something a little uncomfortable in a wig. And add a lab coat and the message becomes extra credible.
But with that said, there's nothing more fun than dancing along with other meeting participants!
If all else fails - ask why?
If you don't have time to plan. If you planned but everything went badly anyway. And for all other situations in between, there's a meeting tip that always works. Ask why!
Why are we having this meeting? Why didn't it go as planned? Why is this a problem? Why doesn't everyone think it's a problem? Why? Why! WHY?
Therefore, the answer to the question is why!
Practice saying why often!
End the meeting on time, preferably earlier.
Few things can be as frustrating as sitting in a meeting that doesn't end when it's called. It's hard to leave a meeting while it's in progress, it feels impolite or like you're in danger of missing something important. Really skilled meeting leaders not only end their meetings on time, but ideally even before the scheduled time. No one has ever gotten mad because a meeting ended too early.
