Do bad meetings really exist?

The senior executives who have the responsibility of introducing improvements into organisations – the ones who determine whether investment is needed in technology, facilities and cultural change – are themselves unlikely to experience bad meetings due to their very position within the organisation. They have the respect of people around them; they have the support of staff to organise, prepare and record every meeting, and they have the meeting room facilities on the executive floor which are not double-booked, are not interrupted, and which are correctly prepared and always ready on time.

So for those of you in senior positions reading this book, do you know:

If you are unsure what the answers would be in your organisation, then perhaps your first call to action is to undertake a ‘Meeting Effectiveness’ audit. Just be sure that you conduct this survey in such a way that employees tell you what you need to know, rather than what they think you want to hear. Perhaps consider enlisting help from an independent organisation to undertake such a survey on your behalf.

How to effect a change to a positive meeting experience

In today’s business climate an increasing amount of work is produced through collaboration, which means that meetings and meeting spaces are actually on the increase. So now is the time to ensure that meetings are conducted for maximum benefit.

Whilst it is impossible to cover every meeting eventuality, Brilliant Meetings is designed to be a commonsense, practical and workable approach to improving meeting effectiveness. Individually, meeting participants, organisers and leaders are not capable of bringing the benefits of improved meetings to the whole organisation. The tipping point of additional benefits such as competitive advantage, increased productivity, reducing time to market, etc. will be truly realised once the organisation adopts the guidelines outlined in this book as an intrinsic part of their culture.

Begin improving meeting effectiveness by asking the following four questions of each and every meeting:

Understanding why people meet

Essentially there are three categories of meetings, broken down by the basic meeting purpose – learn, share, create.

The Learn Meetings are generally when a group gets together to be trained or hear information that is being disseminated to them. This is a less interactive type of meeting: an organisational meeting, a training course, a budget meeting, etc., but nevertheless the best and most productive use of each participant’s time is the ultimate business goal.

The Share Meetings typically are scheduled on a regular basis in order to facilitate knowledge exchange: sales meetings, meetings of departmental heads, the one-on-one meetings, staff meetings, board meetings, process reviews, etc. Generally we know what to expect from these meetings as they become part of our everyday routine and are the life blood of organisations.

Create Meetings can still take place regularly but the format and participants are subject to change as the process or challenge that the group is tackling evolves. These meetings are more prone to failure because of their ad hoc and less formal nature, although the desired outcome is likely to be a decision, process or product.

Do effective meetings matter?

Effective meetings:

Damn right they matter!

How much do Brilliant Meetings cost?

Making improvements will not break the bank; every department does not need to have its own boardroom and full-time PA. Much can be achieved through commonsense measures that call upon people to be accountable and act responsibly to themselves and each other; simple measures that are introduced into the organisation’s culture with the resolve of senior management to make a difference. For example, how much would it cost to develop a set of guidelines that focus attention on the meeting outcomes, before it even begins, resulting in careful consideration by all involved about the likely meeting effectiveness? How much will it cost to take NO action?

‘There are risks and costs to a programme of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.’

John F. Kennedy

Without exception all types of meetings should be subject to organisational guidelines, scrutiny and review to ensure productive effective meetings are the norm, not an infrequent, accidental occurrence.

Start today; develop a set of organisational ground rules for all meetings that has everyone’s support and willingness to adopt. Right from the outset, participants will understand what the organisation expects from them in the meeting environment.

The Brilliant Meeting effect on employees

Attract, develop and retain key employees

The ultimate drivers of performance and success within any business are its people. When employees are emotionally and intellectually connected, they invest far more of their time and energy into making their employment count, both personally and professionally. Given that so much of knowledge workers’ time is spent in meetings, improving meetings will increase the emotional and intellectual connections that employees have with your organisation.

Things that could be implemented now – at little or no cost

• Give responsibility – ‘Director of Meetings’ – for all meetings to a board member, thereby announcing a new era in meeting effectiveness, and demonstrating that this is being driven from the top.
• Introduce the Brilliant Meetings ACTION PLAN (see Chapter 2); ground rules agreed by employees for acceptable behaviour and attitudes before, during and following meetings. Post up a copy of the rules in every meeting room.
• Make Brilliant Meetings a part of every new employee’s recruitment and induction process if they are likely to be involved in meetings.

Things worthy of consideration for short-term implementation

• An audit of meeting room resources and technology – projectors, interactive whiteboards, video conferencing, etc., and introduce a training programme that will raise adoption of the equipment that you have already invested in.
• A strategy to ensure that senior executives also fully adopt these resources, so that the drive to be more efficient comes from the top.
• An audit of meeting room effectiveness.
• Training and guidelines to improve the way that PowerPoint™ is used.

Medium-term strategic considerations

Most meetings rooms, irrespective of their size, have a standard configuration of a central table and a number of chairs. Meetings have many varied purposes; they are where people come together to learn, share and create. The room size and structure for collaborating on new ideas is, for example, very different from that required for a formal appraisal or a daily departmental update session, and these should be reflected in your meeting spaces. From the results of your meeting room audit consider the following:

• Use existing meeting spaces better, through configuration changes or enhanced use of existing resources, so that they can deliver better results quickly from effectively supporting differing meeting requirements. Standard meeting rooms could be complimented with collaboration rooms, impromptu rooms and impromptu spaces in corridors and close to coffee machines.
• Introduce a real-time meeting room scheduling system with interactive displays outside each meeting room. This will stop unnecessary interruptions, reduce waste caused by cancelled meetings, and enhance your organisation’s reputation.

For impromptu and short meetings, change the availability of some smaller rooms so that they can be booked for a maximum period of only 30 minutes. This way, these rooms will be available regularly during the day, and you will not have much bigger rooms with expensive facilities being underutilised.

Motivating your employees

Your employees will be motivated by:

• being included in the development of a Brilliant Meeting strategy;
• having a common set of rules by which everyone abides – ACTION PLAN;
• having inspiring spaces for their meetings;
• having the correct resources to call upon, for which they have been properly trained and from which they can derive the best value;
• using connecting technologies, such as video and audio conferencing to attend meetings, rather than long road journeys, resulting in a better work/life balance.

Collaboration rooms are ‘thinking laboratories’ where ideas are born, processes developed and problems solved by pooling resources. The resources needed for such environments can be as simple as flip charts, or as technologically advanced as data collaboration solutions but, by matching the resources and process to the meeting type, it will result in an effective outcome for all.

The Brilliant Meeting effect on customers

The Brilliant Meeting effect on corporate social responsibility targets

More work, less traffic

The ‘green agenda’ and employee working conditions are now at the top of considerations throughout the planning, manufacture and distribution of goods and services. When it comes to the meeting process, real improvements can be made in all of these areas by choosing to hold meetings over distance; through video, audio and Web conferencing, rather than using carbon-emitting transport and destroying our family routines with excessive, stressful travelling times.

Video conferencing has improved a great deal in the last few years; hardware costs have dropped, secure connection costs using the public Internet are minimal, image and audio quality are now in high definition.

It is not the technology per se that holds back wider usage. Instead it is the meeting environments that contain the equipment, the ease of use brought about through adequate training and the cultural desire to use the technology, that are restricting greater time and money saving. If you already have invested in video, audio and Web-conferencing technologies, then now is the time to take action and make them work for you (see Chapter 13 for more information).

Things that could be implemented now – at little or no cost

• Use the Brilliant Meetings guidelines to determine if a physical meeting is really necessary every time. If it is not, do not allow it to proceed.
• A process that requires pre-authorisation for approval of travel expenses for attending meetings that could have been successfully completed using video, audio, or Web-conferencing technologies.

Things worthy of consideration for short-term implementation

• Video training to be a mandatory part of employee development programmes, and included as part of the new employee induction process for those employees who are likely to be involved in meetings.

Medium-term strategic considerations

• Introduce dedicated video conferencing rooms that pay full attention to the elements that help drive adoption; necessary to become an intrinsic business tool. Location of the room, audio and lighting quality in the room, and furniture selection and layout. See www.meetingexpert.co.uk.

At the top-end of video conferencing is telepresence; essentially a video conferencing solution that uses rooms exclusively for video meetings. In fact, the room layout is such that you could not use these rooms for non-video meetings. The rooms are constructed to give the best possible audio and visual experience between remote participants, who can all see each other as if they were sitting just three feet across the table.

Whilst these rooms are expensive to buy and run, their value to organisations at board level is now proven, and a wider roll-out within large global organisations is taking place quickly.

Aim to be brilliant – make meetings matter

If we regularly attend boring, ineffective meetings, then that is how we view the organisation that allows this to happen, along with perpetuating negative feelings about our own personal effectiveness.

There is no ‘quick fix’ available that removes the ingrained, accepted problem of ‘bad meetings’ but, with a common-sense approach, a change in mind-set and values to accept that meetings are an important function within our job roles, meetings can be made better. Be part of creating a culture that enjoys meetings because of their productivity and effectiveness, and nurture this developing belief that everyone has the responsibility and capability to be part of a Brilliant Meeting every time.

www.meetingexpert.co.uk provides access to many resources associated with making every meeting a Brilliant Meeting. Bookmark this website now, ready for your next Brilliant Meeting: Brilliant Meetings are within our power to create.