Boring meetings

Let it be stipulated that 99 percent of working people have attended a meeting that was dry as dust, boring as hell and — to put it kindly — a complete waste of time. So I won’t waste your time building the case that meetings can be dreary, tedious and unproductive.

You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that.

And we’re not in the business of creating fantasy scenarios about an office with no meetings, where workers are free to produce and create with only the occasional “Atta boy!” from the boss as feedback.

You’ll always have meetings. We’ll always have meetings. Everyone will always have meetings.

So the relevant issue is simple: Since meetings are a part of life — and in the case of many people, a fairly relentless part of it — what can be done to make them less deadly? Or even, dare we say it, productive and engaging?

It can be done, say experts — and it should be.

“The fact that we’ve decided that meetings just suck and that’s how life is, is really throwing in the towel. What we have to do is stop having bad meetings.”

BEFORE

Know your mission: If the point of meetings was simply to get a bunch of people together, then an open bar and buffet table would be de rigueur in every conference room. But meetings aren’t parties; they need a purpose and a plan. If that sounds obvious, consider how often powwows meander along with neither.

“What is the mission? What is it that we hope to accomplish and be done with when we walk out the door? Boring Meetings Suck.”

Before a meeting starts, attendees should know the goal — paring down a list of proposals from 10 to two, for example. And when a meeting ends, attendees should leave with a plan of action to enact, such as arranging presentations for the two proposals that made the cut.

Be selective: A business meeting isn’t Hultsfred. Keep the guest list exclusive.

“Invite as few people as possible to get the job done. If you can accomplish the task with five people, don’t invite 10,” 

And when it’s appropriate, trim as you go. There’s no reason to keep people from accounting in a staff meeting when the topic shifts to sales.

“The meeting leader should say, ‘Would it make sense for us to take that offline with a small meeting with just you and I?’ Great. Boom. Done. Don’t let that person take the next half-hour and talk about something that’s not the points.”

Give assignments: If meetings are to be anything more than glorified bull sessions, then people need to bring solid information to the table. And often, that means work must be doled out prior to the meeting.

“Wherever possible, you want to suggest to people to do some pre-work before they get to the meeting. Too often people just call meetings and show up unprepared. They talk and talk and talk and then set up another meeting and they get to that meeting and they’re not prepared.”

Go short: Simply put, the best way to have shorter meetings is to stop having longer meetings. Substitute a kitchen-sink meeting with a series of quicker ones with more precise goals.

“We need to have tactical meetings where we get together for a shorter period of time and talk about exactly what we’re trying to accomplish. ”

If possible, skip it entirely: Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself a simple question: Is it necessary? That might seem obvious, but meetings are too often called as a reflexive response to a problem that can be more easily handled with a call or an e-mail.

“The important thing is: What are we meeting about? What is the goal? Why have a meeting at all? You’d be amazed at how rare it is for people ask those simple questions.”

DURING

Don’t suffer in silence: If a meeting suddenly veers from its stated purpose for example reviewing new software for the office to how the boss is using new software to improve his fantasy football picks, there’s no reason to take it sitting down.

“Attendees need to stop suffering in silence. We have the right to take charge of the meeting if our facilitator loses control and get things back on topic and if we’re not going to get it back on topic, we should have the right to depart in a professional way rather than have our time wasted.”

Tell a story: When making a presentation at a meeting, try whenever possible to give it a narrative. People go on autopilot when presented with line after line of figures, and nothing says “naptime” like an endless PowerPoint presentation.

“If you’re not telling a story, then it’s just deadly. But if you’re telling a story that’s engaging — if there’s a point to the story with a beginning, a middle and an end — then people will be engaged. They will ask questions. They may bring their own anecdotes to the story. What happens is you start building a conversation and an interaction, as opposed to having just a meeting.”

Invite management: If attendance or lackluster participation is a problem, nothing will solve it like the promise of management dropping in to take the pulse of a department.

“If attendance at the meetings is poor or people are not taking it seriously, invite those important people in and people will begin to realize the meetings are really important.” 

Feed the beast(s): Precipitous drops in blood sugar can lead to precipitous drops in people’s attention span, so give attendees some finger food to keep them from fainting. 

“Always have fun food in the room. We have multi-colored jelly beans in our conference room or nuts for people who want a healthier snack. I think food helps break the ice and gives people energy when they’re lagging.”

Crack the whip: Untold hours are wasted every day by meeting attendees waiting around for stragglers to show. So experts have no shortage of strategies for dealing with malcontents who roll in to a meeting 15 minutes after it starts.

Nothing promotes punctuality like starting a meeting at an odd time such as 11:07 a.m.

“If you say the meeting is starting at 11, people show up at five of 11. People show up at five after 11. People show up at a quarter after 11.” 

“You tell people, ‘Hey, my meeting’s starting at 11:07,’ people show up at 11:07. Because the novelty is why is this meeting starting at 11:07?”

Punitive measures may work as well. I also suggest a “pass the pad” approach where the last person to arrive has to take notes. Others would suggests the silent treatment; a meeting leader should stop what he/she’s saying until the straggler sits down.

“When somebody comes late, you don’t want to scream at them. But you want to make them very gently uncomfortable, knowing they’ve violated the norm” 

If you’re the malingerer, consider not attending at all if you’ll arrive past the 10 or 15 minute mark.

AFTER

Send the memo: To ensure everyone’s on the same page, send out a sheet of checklist items that were concluded in the meeting. Reiterate the key points and disseminate the key duties.

“That really helps to make sure the meeting wasn’t a waste of time.” 

Solicit feedback: Work meetings will never improve unless folks are willing to listen to other folks about what’s going right and wrong. This can be accomplished by asking on the spot if everyone in a meeting believes it’s staying on track, but it should also be a subject of discussion outside of meetings.

“Ultimately, it’s the leader’s job to get the feedback from people. Investing two minutes into figuring out how effective your meetings are can save you hours and hours of ineffective meetings.”

Boredom by the numbers

What bugs people the most about meetings? The employment agency posed that question in a survey of senior managers, asking them what was their single biggest complaint about work gatherings. The answers:

Meetings that start late or run over: 31 percent

Meetings that seem unnecessary: 27 percent

Participants using PDAs or laptops for unrelated activities: 18 percent

People interrupting each other: 15 percent