Meeting date
Determining when to hold the meeting needs careful consideration. Heavy work schedules make it increasingly challenging to find a time that suits everyone perfectly and, the more senior the participants are, the less available they tend to be.
Of course there are many factors that will have an impact on the meeting date. These might include the following:
- the venue and its availability;
- where the participants are located and their travel considerations;
- how quickly the briefing material can be gathered and circulated together with the agenda.
Dates for regular project, sales and board meetings are typically agreed and booked up several months in advance – this reduces costs by allowing participants enough notice to take advantage of offers associated with the advance booking of travel and accommodation. If the majority of the group has to stay overnight it is often worth encouraging the remainder to do so as well, since the ‘team building’ benefits associated with an evening socialising together are considerable. Overnight accommodation for all, on the evening prior to the meeting, also allows for a much earlier and prompt start.
For one-off meetings that are called at short notice, getting the time and venue to suit everyone is more problematic.
If time allows, offer alternative dates to the key participants and build up the meeting from there.
These are all important elements but, above all else, you need to be mindful of the timescale required for the actions and results to be reached. A crisis meeting called at short notice will not have the luxury of advance preparation, but let us assume that we have time to organise a Brilliant Meeting.
Travel
Take into consideration who will be invited and how far they have to travel. If participants have less than a two-hour journey, then it is unlikely that they will travel the day before. If the meeting is scheduled to commence at 9 a.m., then chances are they will be leaving home shortly after 6 a.m. – to build in buffer time for rush-hour traffic and unforeseen circumstances. Will you get the best out of these participants in this circumstance, or is this just an unavoidable facet of modern business life?
If the meeting requires a specific environment, or the meeting includes an external visit, then the time of the meeting could be governed by these outside influences.
Time of day
Certainly a morning meeting is generally considered to be preferable for increased alertness and productivity, and is desirable if the meeting is scheduled to last for five hours or more. However, as well as a published start time, Brilliant Meetings should have a published end time. An ‘on time’ finish is more likely to be achieved if the meeting is scheduled to conclude just before lunch or close of business.
Publish meeting start and end times – and keep to both of them!
Avoid booking a short meeting in the middle of the day as this can waste a lot of time in travel, therefore reducing the productivity of the participants in their other duties. Breakfast meetings are a good idea in certain cultures, but could be considered too demanding on private schedules in some cultures. Do not forget also to consider people’s travelling times after the meeting; if a late finish time is scheduled, think about offering overnight accommodation if warranted.
Time limits create a sense of urgency and focus that can greatly aid meeting productivity.
Here is another idea on scheduling the time for a meeting.
Publish a memorable start and end time for your meeting. For example:
Thursday 27 August, Asset Management Meeting, Boardroom
Start 11.11 a.m.
Finish 12.26 p.m.
Most meetings start on the hour or half-hour and we have become totally conditioned to this. Now think about starting and ending the meeting at curious times. So instead of an 11 a.m. start choose 11.11, with a finish of 12.26. The most recent versions of Microsoft Outlook™ allow specific times to be entered in to the meeting invitation and calendar.
Duration
There are too many issues that can affect the time required for an effective meeting and there is no magic formula to calculate the correct meeting duration – that we know about!
A great starting point for calculating meeting duration is first to develop a draft agenda and to allocate a notional time to each item. This may seem obvious but how many meetings have you attended where the meeting has over-run and/or the agenda was not completed? Estimating start and finish times for each item will give you confidence that the agenda can be realistically completed within the allocated time. This important process should not take an undue amount of time, but is worthy of your full consideration. (Chapter 8 gives guidance on constructing an agenda.)
Breaks
Scheduled breaks should be included in the calculation for the duration of the meeting; the longer the meeting – the more breaks necessary. If people are not participating fully all of the time, concentration begins to drop after just 45 minutes. ‘Comfort breaks’ also need to be scheduled regularly, so plan for at least a ‘five-minute break’ every hour. For prolonged meetings, consider also the need to allow participants time to access phone messages/emails, etc.
Presenters
If the meeting incorporates external presenters who will participate in the meeting only for the duration of their own presentation, then consider carefully at what point they are scheduled. If set up of computer or other equipment is required, there is a danger that participants will view that time as downtime leaving them with nothing to do. Once the meeting continuity is broken, participants may use the opportunity to visit the toilet, start side conversations, check emails, etc. Consider scheduling the presenter to start immediately after a timetabled break, so that equipment can be configured whilst the meeting participants are out of the room.
Set up time, clear up time
If the meeting space is reserved using a computerised diary system, then the start and end times are broadcast automatically to the participants. If you need to set aside time before and/or after the meeting to make any adjustments to the room layout, or to have equipment prepared, you will need to book additional meeting times as appropriate. Otherwise, participants will be getting in your way for the first 10 minutes, which will be a complete waste of their time too.
Time
There is a tendency to book a meeting space for longer than required, ‘just in case’. If the agenda determines that 90 minutes is the right length of time to complete it, then book the space for 90 minutes. If instead the space is booked for 2 hours, then doubtlessly the additional 30 minutes will be filled. However, the meeting will suffer as a result; time constraints help to focus solely on the topics in a concise, productive way. Instead, people will go off topic, and trivial peripheral discussions may creep in.