These fists will fly anytime soon if your meeting culture sucks

Make Meetings Less Painful

It’s no secret that meetings are expensive:

• Two hours of meetings per business day equals 2+ months a year. Per person.
• A 15 min meeting with 30 participants equals about a day of work

I’m not here to talk about money, but about time. If you’ve felt frustration about inefficient meetings last year, consider a change now.

1. No meeting without MC (Master of Ceremony)

Tasks of the MC:

• Present the agenda including lotted time
• Make sure that a 60 min meeting with 40 min content ends after 40 mins
• Inform speakers 3 mins before their time is up (or earlier if Q & A is planned). Politely stop speakers when their slot is done.
• Connect with speakers of different teams in advance to support them in following your meeting culture
• Guide the flow with flash feedbacks (“Please raise your hand if we should cut this topic short”) and directions (“I suggest we take this one offline — vetos?”)
• Summarize if needed

2. As speaker: Be compact and know your audience

• Two good ways to lose your audience are a) slow pace and b) unimportant / unengaging content. If you give participants reasons to check their smartphone, it’s your fault.
• If you speak in a team you don’t know, connect with their MC before
• The best meetings are those which don’t take place. Is there a more efficient channel to address your topic? Slack, email, call, …?
• Acknowledge the total time: If you present to 20 people, you are time-efficient if you need less than 2.5 hours to trim your presentation by 10 mins.
• Consider concise and fast-paced formats (e.g. Pecha Kucha or Ignite), especially if they aren’t used much in your company.

3. As audience: Think before you speak

Common sense, yet hard for many of us, in particular extroverts who are often naturally forming their opinion by the process of speaking. That’s ok. Still ask yourself:

• Is my contribution new (enough) and helpful to the conversation?
• Is my point for the round or rather for the speaker post-meeting?
• The more people there are, the briefer you need to be to give everyone their space. Discussions are valuable because different people speak, not because of your monologues.

4. Never go over time

Neither as speaker nor as MC. Do it and it will happen again. I can’t count the number of keynotes where important people spend 100% extra talking time without realizing that all their oh-so-important content is long lost in the frustration of the crowd. It’s unprofessional because you didn’t prepare well and rude because you violate the schedule of other people.

• Keep your agenda public and editable. If every participant has a chance to put their point on the agenda in advance, it’s fair to expect finishing on time.
• Always end 5 mins early. People can use the time to process the input, put action items onto their to-do lists or simply walk to the next meeting (oh please!) without “running” late.

5. Be kind

Following meeting guidelines doesn’t mean that you should turn your exchanges into soulless staccatos. Show appreciation to speakers who respect your attention and give your personal thanks to colleagues who walk the extra mile by showing well-prepared content. Positive reinforcement is one of the most enjoyable ways to foster a positive meeting (and in fact, any great) culture.

Meetings are like cockroaches. Let’s at least make them colourful.

Thanks for your time.