Unorganized meetings that lack purpose and structure waste precious time and cause significant business disruptions. On today’s episode of Lessons in Leadership, leadership expert and founder of LearnToLead, Dave Anderson, unpacks the first phase to maximize meeting productivity: preparation.
Preparation is everything. When a leader fails to plan adequately, it can easily cause the discussion to spiral out of control, leaving participants walking away feeling frustrated and as if their time was wasted. It can also become confusing and challenging to hold team members accountable. There are several preparation steps that leaders should take during the planning phase to facilitate a productive meeting.
Determine the purpose
The first step to any meeting is determining its purpose. If it’s to share information with the team, Anderson recommends using email or memo boards instead.
Occasionally, it’s necessary to host these types of meetings. However, Anderson advises limiting it as much as possible and reserving meetings for crucial matters such as influencing action, making decisions, or determining responsibilities.
By determining the meeting’s purpose, leaders can easily decide who must attend and create a better agenda.
Decide who must attend
The second step is to decide who to invite to the meeting. Anderson points out that often, too many individuals attend meetings that aren’t relevant or critical to them. It also pulls employees away from their work, causing frustration and reducing productivity.
When deciding who to invite, Anderson recommends leaders ask themselves: “Will this guest drive the purpose of this meeting?” and “Will they influence the decision, action, or be responsible for the outcome?”
If the answer is “no,” these individuals should not be invited to attend the meeting and informed of the details at a later time.
Create and distribute an agenda
Before hosting the meeting, create and distribute an agenda to the participants in advance. Leaders should also distribute any data or metrics they plan to share during the conversation.
"Preparation is everything, and it sets up a successful delivery of the meeting."
When invitees receive the agenda early, they understand the meeting’s purpose and anticipate the discussion topics. After distributing the plan, leaders should follow up with invitees to solicit potential thoughts, concerns and questions to address common concerns during the conversation.
The agenda is critical because it serves as an anchor. It allows the facilitator to quickly refocus the conversation when disruptions or unrelated questions or topics inevitably arise.
Assign roles
Before hosting a meeting, it’s essential to assign several key roles. These three individuals work together to maintain organization and keep the conversation moving along smoothly.
These roles are:
- Facilitator: This individual leads the meeting, guiding participants through the agenda’s key points.
- Timekeeper: This role’s responsibility is to monitor time, keeping the facilitator on track and signaling when time is running short and is out.
- Recorder of Commitment (ROC): The recorder is the notetaker who records the details of the conversation, including who is responsible for the topics and tasks discussed.
Hosting productive meetings
Taking the time to prepare for meetings ensures that all critical topics are addressed, minimizes disruption, and facilitates effective follow-up. Leaders who take the time to prepare will lead more productive conversations that boost clarity and accountability across their organization.
