Imagine having the power to shorten a meeting. You would provide people with what they most want and need . . . time. You would be a hero.
You can do this
The power is within your grasp. Cutting time from a meeting doesn’t require magic. You don’t need to be an executive. You simply have to use these meeting time savers.
1. Be prepared
This idea seems to be common sense, and yet it is far from common practice. Everyone is so busy. They simply don’t have time to prepare.
Leaders don’t develop an agenda, and time is wasted arguing about the process the group should follow. Participants don’t do their homework, and the meeting bogs down in guesswork and speculation.
Even the logistical preparation is often left undone, and time evaporates during the search for equipment or while getting the settings right in WebEx, Zoom, or Teams. Preparation helps a group meet its goals quickly and effectively.
2. Start the meeting at an unusual time
The typical meeting is scheduled to start on the hour or half-hour. This makes it easy for people to schedule back-to-back meetings. This also leads to chronic lateness as people grab something to drink, stop at the restroom, or check email between meetings. Time is wasted as participants wait for the latecomers.
A good strategy for overcoming this problem is starting the meeting at an unusual time. Try scheduling the meeting for 10:10 or 2:37.
The strangeness of the starting time helps people arrive on time for two reasons. First they have time to take care of their needs between meetings. Second, they are more likely to notice the starting time and think that the precision must be for an important reason.
3. Make the meeting purpose clear and specific
It’s difficult for a group to be quick in its work when it doesn’t know what it is supposed to accomplish. The group needs meaning and purpose and if these are absent, members will consume a tremendous amount of time in search of this direction.
A clear sense of direction energizes a group and keeps it focused. Little or no time is wasted pursuing work that isn’t relevant. It’s best when this is communicated prior to the meeting.
4. Schedule only the time you need
Suppose you are certain you could fulfill your meeting purpose in 50 minutes. Do you schedule a 50-minute meeting? Most people schedule it for an hour to build in a little cushion and use the full hour.
Work expands to fill the time allotted for it. If you think you need 50 minutes, schedule 50 minutes. This will force you and the other participants to stay focused and move the meeting along as planned.
Teach Your Leaders to Run Effective Meetings
Calling all potential meeting heroes. Let’s make meetings better.
5. Use a facilitator
Meetings often come to a screeching halt as the participants struggle to overcome some barrier. This is exactly when a facilitator can help.
Their number one job is to prevent teams from becoming or remaining stuck. Facilitators offer a tool bag full of activities and techniques for quickly guiding a group over the rough spots with minimal pain and effort.
And yes, I’d be delighted to serve you as a facilitator. Reach out anytime.
6. Use a timekeeper
Meetings are expensive. Like any other expense, time consumed in meetings should be carefully managed.
Timekeepers track time for each agenda item. They warn the group when time is running out and stop the group at the end of the allotted time period. The job appears simple; however, a good timekeeper must have the courage to interrupt a discussion when time has run out.
For remote meetings, the software often has a timer built in. You’ve got the option, you may as well use it.
7. Don’t sit down
Although it appears gimmicky, it can be effective for routine informational meetings.
Think of a football huddle. The purpose of the huddle is very specific: Communicate the next play to everyone on the team. Imagine if the football team ran to the bench and sat down to get the next play. It would certainly slow the game’s progress.
Traveling to and from a conference room eats up precious time. It’s not always necessary and for those times a huddle might be the perfect meeting solution.
In the virtual world this trick doesn’t work. What does it setting a very short amount of time, having a standing agenda, and using that timekeeper.
8. Create a parking lot
In meetings a parking lot is a place to write down ideas, comments, and concerns that don’t fit the topic currently being discussed. It’s an excellent tool because it captures potentially important ideas and keeps the meeting focused and on track.
In person this is a section of whiteboard or a flip chart. Virtually, it’s a shared document that’s visible during the meeting.
9. Develop and honor time-related ground rules
Ground rules are the practices your group agrees to live by in its meetings. Here are some that might help a group better manage its time: A) We start on time. B) We never end late. C) We only tackle topics that we are prepared to handle. D) We stick to the agenda. E) We don’t meet without a clear purpose.
With more meetings happening remotely, there are likely several new ground rules you should adopt to make those meetings work better.
10. Divide and conquer the work
Groups often think each person needs to participate in each piece of the meeting. This just isn’t true.
Suppose you have a large meeting of 15 people, and you want to evaluate the merits of three concepts. Instead of having everyone evaluate each idea, break into three groups. Each group evaluates one concept and then reports its findings to the other groups. You’ll get better results in half the time.
With virtual breakout rooms, this is easier than ever.
11. Continuously improve your meetings
There is a management maxim that states, “What you measure improves.”
Measuring the length of your meetings will provide baseline information to help you see if you are improving. It’s a good start, but not enough.
You also need to think about how to improve your performance. Answering one question at the end of each meeting and applying the answers to future meetings can do this. “How could we have been more efficient in this meeting?”
Shorten your meetings
The ideas in this article represent just a few of the many good ways to shorten a meeting. You can find dozens of other ways to run better meeting in my book, Meeting Hero available on Amazon.com.
Conceptually, each of these ideas is quite simple. The tough part is finding the discipline and courage to use them. When deciding whether or not to try them, it’s important to remember that you have nothing to lose, except for hours and hours of wasted time.
