Jani’s Journal Issue 30: Taking Your Meetings from Painful to Powerful
9/17/2024
A few months ago, some colleagues suggested I dedicate an issue of Jani’s Journal to effective meetings. I am proud to have been complimented on facilitating efficient and effective meetings, but I have a dark secret…
I am ashamed to admit that I have actually said some version of this “funny” cartoon. After years of wasting time and energy sitting in meetings that could have been an email, required longer travel time than the meeting itself, had no agenda, or worse, an agenda that was completely ignored, and all the other painful meeting practices we lament about, I found myself frustrated with my calendar of back-to-back useless meetings and committed to stop being part of the problem.
In both the for-profit and non-profit worlds, painful meetings are often engrained in an organization’s culture. And while you can’t change it overnight, modeling the way with some of the tips and practices compiled below gradually shows those participating in meetings you facilitate that meetings can be productive, efficient, worth their time investment, and maybe even pleasant. There is hope!
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Jani’s Jackpot!
If you only have time to read one article, Jani’s Jackpot promises the ultimate payout!
🔗 The Surprising Science Behind Successful Remote Meetings 🔗
Don’t let the title fool you! This Jackpot article from MIT Sloan Review is full of research-based practices for effective meetings—both remote and in-person. Some of my favorites include:
Adopt a Stewardship Mindset: Stewardship of financial support is often a focus for nonprofits. Try applying that same commitment to stewarding our most precious resource, time, by treating meetings as an opportunity to respect and maximize attendees' time. Be deliberate in planning and execution.
Limit Attendees: Avoid over-inviting. Meetings lose quality with too many participants. Record meetings for nonessential members to review later (at twice the playback speed if preferred).
Set Shorter Meetings (20-45 minutes): Avoid defaulting to hour-long meetings. Research shows shorter meetings with time pressure increase focus and efficiency.
Frame Agendas as Questions: Structure the agenda around questions that need answers rather than topics to discuss, making it easier to gauge meeting success and avoid dragging on.
Use Video to Combat Social Loafing: Video helps counter the tendency for participants to disengage and stay anonymous, ensuring more active involvement.
Start and End on Time: Timeliness reduces stress and technical delays. Leaders should log in early to ensure smooth technology setup.
Set Meeting Norms: Establish clear expectations for contributions, such as limiting responses to 60 seconds, and allow breaks to combat fatigue during longer sessions.
Facilitate Actively: Engage participants by calling on specific individuals and avoiding generic prompts like “Any comments?” Ensure all voices are heard and keep the discussion on track.
Utilize Tools for Engagement: Use apps like Poll Everywhere to gauge consensus in real time and chat features for attendees to indicate they want to speak or clarify missed points.
Clarify Takeaways: Always end meetings by summarizing key takeaways and assigning clear responsibilities for each action item.
Gather Feedback: Regularly ask attendees for feedback on how to improve meetings. Surveys can be useful, but often a quick 1-10 rating and what would have made it a 10 can spark suggestions and ensure continuous improvement.
Meeting Fundamentals
🔗 Holding Effective and Efficient Meetings 🔗
By following these meeting fundamentals practiced by UCLA’s Administration, organizations can foster clear communication, clarify roles, and achieve desired results efficiently. Proper planning and consistent practice will improve meeting management skills over time.
Determine if a meeting is necessary or if a brief phone call or email will suffice. Meetings are best for decision-making, discussions, team building, or sharing complex information.
Invite Only Key Decision-Makers based on the meeting’s purpose and goals.
Distribute a Clear Agenda before the meeting that outlines the objectives and desired outcomes.
Respect the start and stop times by scheduling any needed follow-up meetings before the current meeting ends.
Assign Action Items with clear responsibilities and deadlines to ensure everyone knows who is accountable for next steps.
Be mindful that different team members have varying peak productivity times due to their chronotypes (natural sleep habits and energy levels). Aim to schedule meetings during times that suit most attendees.
Rotate Notetaking to keep all attendees engaged in recurring meetings. Note, this implies that all meetings have notes available in the first place!
🔗 How Can I Make Meetings Less Painful? 🔗
By focusing on relationships, trust, and emotional understanding, meetings can become more meaningful and energizing, ultimately leading to better team engagement and outcomes. Watch the video below or read the highlights of this MIT Sloan Review guest author and Duke University professor, Sanyin Siang:
Incorporate trust-building in decision-making by discussing not only the decisions but also the emotional consequences for team members. This allows for greater insight into each other's values and fosters a supportive environment.
Foster vulnerability in brainstorming sessions by encouraging team members to share ideas freely without judgment and refocusing the team when they’ve moved from ideation to evaluation too soon.
Transform information-sharing into connection-building by using routine meetings to help team members understand each other’s challenges, strategies, and successes, as well as to create opportunities for cross-departmental help. Celebrate wins together!
🔗 Hard Truths About the Meeting After the Meeting 🔗
“The meeting after the meeting is inevitable. The only question is whether you are going to participate in that conversation or not.”—Dave Kievet, CEO of the Boldt Group.
While those “meetings” in the parking lot can be a space for clarification and sense-making, they are more often gripe sessions leading to negative consequences such as spreading rumors, undermining workplace culture, or fostering disengagement. This MIT Sloan Review article identifies how leaders can address this dynamic proactively to reduce its harmful effects:
Planning meetings with intentionality by defining why, who, what, when, where, and how to reduce the chances of post-meeting confusion or negative chatter.
Crafting standard protocols for communicating change that include the rationale, alternatives, and impact, to prevent the need for post-meeting clarifications.
Encourage diverse perspectives during the formal meeting. This requires proactively offering meeting materials in advance to ensure everyone is informed and ensuring vulnerability-based trust exists within the team.
Acknowledge attendees’ concerns and shift the focus from individual issues to group problem-solving.
Elevate the value of pushback by encouraging open debate during the meeting to prevent negative discussions afterward and ensuring concerns are addressed in a constructive way during the formal meeting.
🔗 If We’re So Busy, Why Isn’t Anything Getting Done? 🔗
This McKinsey & Company article was featured in February’s Time Management Issue of Jani’s Journal, but in case you missed it…
McKinsey offers a quick guide to deciding the best collaboration method based on the type of interaction and what needs to be accomplished. Over the next month, try consulting this simple chart when scheduling meetings to streamline collaboration efforts and embrace effective communication strategies to reclaim your valuable time.
Special Meetings
🔗 Hybrid Work Has Changed Meetings Forever 🔗
This Harvard Business Review shares their most current research on virtual meetings and recommendations to improve on the stark statistics:
The average number of meetings per week increased from 8.3 in 2021’s mostly virtual work environment to 10.1 in 2023’s primarily office and hybrid environments. Thus, more meetings are here to stay, and in-person collaborative behaviors are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic norms.
Two virtual meeting metrics have emerged with strong ties to employee attrition or retention: virtual meeting participation and camera use. Being present, but with mic muted for meeting’s entirety is associated with attrition, while consistent camera use is associated with retention. Unfortunately, they are both trending in the direction of attrition.
The rise in virtual meetings has not reduced the overall number of meetings or improved engagement and 68% of employees report a lack of focus time due to meetings. Further, unnecessary meetings cost millions that nonprofit organizations can’t spare. How to make the most of virtual meetings:
Treat meeting culture as part of company culture with defined standard practices for meetings, including focus hours and meeting-free days, that align with organizational values.
Identify and focus on training the 10% of employees who host 54% of meetings. These “power users” strongly influence and are key to improving overall meeting culture.
Use anonymized data on meeting participation and engagement to track progress on meeting efficiency and iterate improvements while still protecting employee privacy and fostering psychological safety.
Share collaboration key performance indicators (KPIs) with executives to support data-driven decision-making and align meeting practices with strategic goals.
🔗 Five Signs Your One-on-Ones Aren't Working 🔗
This Harvard Business Review article highlights common signs your one-on-one meetings have lost effectiveness, either from poor structure, repetitiveness, or lack of engagement. Common red flags signaling an overhaul is needed include lack of preparation, meetings going off-track, or a feeling of wasted time due to unproductive conversations. Some solutions to get your one-on-ones back on track include:
Set clear agendas by using a shared document to set specific topics for discussion and focus on career development in at least one meeting per month.
Keep meetings on time by avoiding unnecessary depth and detail in weekly meetings. Schedule separate time for specific project discussions or conflict resolution.
Foster engagement and build trust by asking open-ended questions that encourage deeper conversations, such as discussing team dynamics or professional highlights.
Manage emotional boundaries by setting limits on venting sessions. Guide the conversation toward actionable solutions and maintain emotional boundaries to avoid burnout.
Minimize distractions by eliminating second-screen distractions during meetings and modeling focused behavior, ensuring both parties are fully present.
🔗 Want a Better Decision? Plan a Better Meeting 🔗
With their high organizational impact, decision making meetings also come with greater risk when these special meetings go awry. This McKinsey & Company article offers tips to avoid meetings that lack clear objectives, involve too many participants, and blur the lines between discussion, decision-making, and accountability, leading to confusion and delayed actions. Boost efficiency and productivity in your decision-making meetings by:
Reviewing recurring meetings to ensure they have a purpose, eliminate unnecessary meetings, and avoid duplicating discussions in other forums.
Defining whether a meeting is for information sharing, discussion, or decision-making, and ensure everyone is aligned on its purpose and objectives from the outset. This can be designated on the agenda.
Assigning clear roles for decision-makers, advisers, recommenders, and execution partners to avoid confusion and ensure accountability. Designating a “devil’s advocate” to ensure opposing ideas are vetted and someone accountable for helping the group stay on agenda can boost both decision effectiveness and meeting efficiency.
Only including participants who are directly involved in the decision-making process and communicating outcomes to others through alternative channels.
Distributing necessary information in advance and minimizing "informational" aspects during meetings to allow more time for meaningful discussion. Both mutual commitment to coming to meetings prepared and adequate time to do so for all participants must be engrained in organizational meeting culture for this to succeed.
Ensuring follow-up on decisions and establishing clear next steps to avoid indecision or delays in implementation.
Leveraging Technology in Meetings
One repeated recommendation that may have caught your attention is limiting meeting participants only to those absolutely necessary to accomplish the meeting’s objectives. With the pace and volume of information ever increasing and meetings often being used to share information, the recommendation to limit meeting participants may seem unrealistic. These Zapier.com articles list two types of artificial intelligence applications that can boost efficient information sharing regardless of the type of meeting: transcription software and meeting assistants. Nonprofits can especially benefit from free or low-cost options given slim human resources to compile and distribute meeting notes, etc.
🔗 The Best Transcription Software in 2024 🔗
🔗 The Nine best AI Meeting Assistants in 2024 🔗
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