Every meeting starts long before you walk through the meeting room door.
If it is a series of meetings then you may have previous assigned actions that need completing prior to the next meeting. If it is a new meeting then you should have received the agenda and seen the list of participants.
As a participant, it is your responsibility to bring as much of your experience and knowledge into each meeting that you attend. Why else have you been invited?
Every participant must have the mindset that pre-meeting preparation is essential to complete; not just for themselves, but for the other participants as well. For example, it is not just your reputation that is damaged if you have failed to assemble all the information requested of you, but what about the reduced value to your fellow participants? Just like you, these participants may have travelled extensively or rescheduled other tasks in order to be there.
So as soon as the meeting invitation arrives in your in-box, begin to mentally calculate the necessary time and resources needed to complete the meeting preparation, and what impact this has on your schedule. How much more could be achieved by everyone with thorough preparation?
Meeting request, meeting invitation, or meeting demand?
Most of us receive our instruction to participate in a meeting electronically. On the screen is the name of the organiser, the date, time and venue, together with information to let us know if we are ‘Required’ or ‘Optional’. Our electronic diary will immediately warn us if there is a conflict with an existing entry in our calendar, and buttons appear prompting us to ‘Accept’, ‘Decline’, or to ‘Propose a New Time’. With a couple of nonchalant clicks of our mouse the time is allocated in our calendar.
Electronic communication is invasive although we have become conditioned to give emails and telephone calls immediate priority. Emails that pop up onto the screens of our computers and mobile phones take away our attention – however momentarily – from what we are doing. Too often we respond on impulse; we deal with the intrusion – in this case we accept as there is no scheduling conflict in our diary – and carry on. We have taken the easy option, the route of least resistance.
Every time a meeting is requested from now on you must consider the implications on yourself, the other meeting participants, and then determine what is best for you and your organisation. Just because meetings within your organisation have always occurred this way, does not make it right and certainly should not mean that they continue unchallenged and unchanged.
Only accept if:
- in your opinion a physical meeting is the right way to deal with the issue;
- by attending you can add real value to the meeting;
- you have time to assemble all the necessary information and prepare correctly;
- the desired outcome can be achieved or advanced significantly;
- the date, time and venue is convenient;
- you fully understand the objectives, decision-making process, etc.
So, once you have carefully considered your personal value to the meeting, if you think that your attendance is not a worthwhile use of your time, communicate this back to the organiser as soon as possible. Do not just decline, but outline the reason(s) why. It could be that you have raised a point that the meeting organiser has overlooked, and the sooner they are aware of it, the sooner any decision about cancelling or rearranging the meeting can be made and communicated to the other participants.
Thank the organiser for sending you the invitation, and then outline your position.
Review the agenda
The word agenda is derived from the Latin as a plural of agendum and, quite literally, means ‘things to be done’.
Look at the agenda with the same focus that you applied to the meeting invitation.
- Are the objectives fully supported by the agenda items?
- Can the agenda be effectively completed in the time allocated?
- Have all the necessary topics to ‘gain an advance’ been included?
- Will all necessary actions assigned to you at the previous meeting have been completed?
- Is there the authority within the meeting to reach binding decisions?
If the answer to any one of the above questions is ‘no’, then the meeting should not go ahead in its proposed format. Bringing people together costs far more than their time alone; the property costs for meeting facilities, together with any additional travel, accommodation, and refreshments are considerable. If the meeting cannot hope to meet its outcomes then it is better it did not take place. If it were to proceed, what other outcome could there be apart from the well clichéd ‘meeting about a meeting?’ In other words, this can only be at best an ineffective meeting. Ineffective meetings trigger low morale, low productivity and, if not actively challenged, can easily become the norm, dragging down standards within organisations.
Whilst it can be argued that a meeting organiser should not circulate an agenda that has no realistic chance of being completed during the meeting, it is also the responsibility of any participant to notify the organiser if they feel the intended outcome(s) is unachievable. The participant may have information not available to the organiser, and so a culture must persist that allows such honest feedback.
In order to react to issues and situations that arise and have to be dealt with almost immediately, unplanned or impromptu meetings are an essential part of everyday business life. However, every planned meeting should have an agenda, without exception.
Considering your contributions
Having looked carefully through the agenda, in addition to any presentations you have to prepare for, you will also be able to identify any discussions that may require your input. Given that you can see the topics being presented by others, is there anything that you can research or prepare in advance that will support the position you are most likely to endorse?
Obviously, the sooner you start your research and identify the questions you could ask, etc., the more background material you will be able to pull together in full readiness.
For your own planned presentations, the content, design and delivery are all key to persuading others to take your point of view.
Chapter 4 is devoted to planning, preparing and presenting during a meeting, taking into consideration the resources and equipment available to you.
Before the meeting takes place do the following.
- Review the agenda. Do you need any information from colleagues for this meeting?
- Review your authority with regard to making decisions on the intended outcomes.
- Raise any concerns or required clarifications in advance of the meeting.
- Prepare and circulate any briefing notes.
- Plan to arrive early.
All too often we determine the required travelling time by what has been our best experience to date. Now we have no ‘buffer’ built in if something goes wrong. Bad weather, traffic accidents and congestion are all out of our control, and are almost certain to conspire against us when we have not left sufficient time.
Aim to be there early and, if you are fully prepared on arrival, use the time to catch up on telephone calls.