Proper prior preparation prevents painful, pointless pow-wows
We've all been in them - meetings with no discernible beginning, middle or end. Or when behaviors and meeting patterns are so predictably unproductive it seems like - topic aside - you're in the same meeting over and over. When this is the norm, it's little wonder there's "the meeting after the meeting," otherwise progress might never occur.
A more troubling aspect of meetings can be the subsequent undermining of a session's agreements. Such behavior can be curbed through better meeting planning and leading, whether by an in-house resource or a professional facilitator.
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Creating sustainable outcomes requires thoughtful preparation around purpose, process and closure. This needn't be overly time-consuming to work well, but without it, you lose about three quarters of a meeting's potential effectiveness and face increased risk of dreaded FTI: failure to implement.
PURPOSE
Meeting purposes are usually ill-defined, even with a prepared agenda. Preparation around purpose is three-pronged:
1. Document the desired outcome in a purpose statement. This is fairly straightforward. Examples are "To create a plan for ..." or "To decide about ..." Unfortunately, this and aligning calendars are where most meeting organizers conclude the planning process.
To avoid derailed meetings, it helps to define what the meeting is not. "We are meeting to determine specific experience requirements for all future accounting department hires. We are not going to discuss performance of past or current employees."
2. Define the outputs necessary for a successful session. Important considerations are made here, going deeper than the purpose statement. For example, in our accounting department scenario, we might state that at meeting's end, we should have separate listings for "must-have" skills, "would-be-nice" skills, and desired traits, as well as documented minimum education and prior experience levels.
A crucial part of the outputs is clarifying, by the beginning of the meeting, exactly how decisions will be made. A leading cause of meeting frustration is lack of clarity and transparency about the process. Surprisingly, many company leaders confess that even they don't really know how decisions come to be.
If there's a perception that the "real" decision is made elsewhere - before, during or after the meeting - participants believe that their involvement is spurious; their time wasted. If a meeting's purpose is merely to collect ideas from people, not to result in a decision or recommendation from them, make sure that context is clear so they don't feel ignored later.
3. Anticipate the needed inputs. Assess outputs to uncover which inputs may be helpful. When meeting participants convene to make a decision, knowledge required to fully understand and evaluate alternatives must be available. Are the right people present, such as representatives from every impacted area? Experts to answer "what if" or "how to" questions? People who can spot unintended consequences that might result from a given decision? On-hand or advance data requirements may include research, statistical or financial reports, and procedural or other document samples.
