There are way too many meetings that should never have happened in the first place. You know it. I know it. And we are all more than a little sick of having to sit through these meetings. They waste our time and bore us to tears.

So what should you do if you’re thinking about calling a meeting and have doubts about whether or not you should? Let me ease your concern. Just because there are a lot of meetings that should never have occurred doesn’t mean that there aren’t some that should have been held. Your goal is to only call one when there’s a good reason for doing so. I can think of at least five good reasons to call a meeting. Would be interested in learning about others if you can think of some.

1. You’ve got a problem you can’t solve on your own and don’t know of any one person who you can ask to solve it for you. You believe the solution will require the creative brainpower of a group.
2. You need a decision that affects a group, and you believe it should be made by the group rather than imposed upon them.
3. You need to put together a plan. You recognize the importance of involving others in order to build a better plan and generate more buy-in.
4. You’ve got news to share that will likely cause an emotional reaction and generate lots of questions. You believe that it will be best to provide the information to everyone at the same time, and let all hear the answers to the questions that others ask.
5. You are launching a new initiative and want to bring people together for the purpose of setting the direction and establishing guidelines.

See a theme? All these reasons have an element of two-way interaction. Great meetings are a collaborative activity, and you should call one only if collaboration is necessary.

There is one more thing that’s a little harder to identify, but you should try. Assuming you have a reason, and your reason requires collaboration; ask yourself if it’s worth it. The value equation is the one we apply in all sorts of situations. It fits here as well. It boils down to “Value = Benefits – Costs.” Use your best estimates and consider not calling the meeting unless the result is positive.

We can tweak meetings to make them better, but the greatest impact can be realized by knowing when and when not to call a meeting in the first place.

Image credit: © Can Stock Photo

In sports, teams call time outs. They do it when they want to think through their next move or when they want to stop the clock. You can do the same thing when running a meeting. There are at least four instances during a meeting when taking a break is a smart move.

Butts and Bladders

The first one is the obvious. People have been sitting too long and need to get up and move. I was recently appointed to a city commission. The first meeting I attended lasted four hours, without a break! By the end my chair was no longer my friend. Focusing on a meeting and focusing on one’s butt and/or bladder are mutually exclusive. And we all know which one loses when they both demand our attention. My rule is two hours max without a break. For long meetings, 90 minutes between breaks is better.

Transitions

A second time to use breaks is as a transition between major accomplishments. After completing one activity take a break, even if it is just for a few minutes to stretch. This does three things. It reinforces the fact that the group has just accomplished something. This is always a good thing, especially since most people believe meetings are a waste of time. Second, it serves as a reward. People like breaks. Give them one when they’ve earned it. Third, it helps people clear their minds of the previous task. Take the example of when you just finished evaluating an idea. Now you want to move to a more creative activity. The break will help you shut down the critical parts of the participants’ brains and engage the idea-generating parts.

Need a Plan

The third reason is when you need time to figure out what happens next. Perhaps the team has come to an impasse and everyone, including yourself seems a little unsure of how to proceed. This is a perfect time to walk away from the table for a bit. Doing so relieves the pressure of having to pull the rabbit out of a hat when everyone is staring at you. It also gives people a chance to have some informal conversations at break that might help solve the problem. This is most likely to happen if you plant a seed by saying, “We need to figure out what makes most sense in terms of how we move forward. Let’s take a break and give that a little thought.”

Tempers Flaring

There is a last situation when taking a break makes sense. When things start getting too hot and everyone needs to cool down a bit. Hopefully this a rare occurrence in the meetings you lead, but sometimes a fight breaks out and after doing everything you can think of to restore order, you run out of options. Call a break. Here’s my caution, though. Don’t call a break just because things get uncomfortable. Often, the uncomfortable conversation is exactly the conversations that needs to happen within a group. The trick is understanding the difference between a hot situation that is productive and one that is not.

Take Breaks

The break is an important and useful tool that you should use when running longer meetings. In sports, you’ll rarely see a coach criticized for calling time-out. There is plenty of criticism directed at coaches that didn’t call one when it was obvious to everyone else it was needed.

Image credit: Francisco_osorio