CHAPTER 27

Give Your Standing Meetings a Makeover

by Martha Craumer

Regularly scheduled meetings (staff meetings, progress report meetings, and sales meetings) sometimes seem to be called out of habit or a sense of duty rather than need. They’re valuable not only for the information they allow people to share but also for the face time they offer. However, their importance doesn’t necessarily make them interesting. Meeting with the same people in the same room every week to discuss the same topics can get boring, resulting in many empty chairs—and a lack of enthusiasm among the remaining attendees. Here are some ways to keep your regular meetings fresh—and attendance high.

Regularly review the meeting’s purpose

From time to time remind participants of the reasons for meeting, and ask if the meeting still serves that purpose. For example, a project team may hold twice-weekly status reports at the beginning of a project, when there are a lot of new developments and many decisions to make. Once the initial frenzy subsides, though, there may only be enough new information to warrant a monthly meeting.

Solicit agenda items from the group in advance

This gives attendees a chance to bring up issues that are of interest to them.

Cancel when there is no reason to meet

Nothing on the agenda? Don’t meet. There’s no sense in gathering together just because it’s what you do on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. People will come to appreciate that your meetings won’t be a waste of time.

Rotate leadership of the meeting

Have each attendee take a turn running the meeting— setting the agenda, preparing materials, and introducing topics. It’s a great way to inspire ownership of the meeting.

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Martha Craumer is a senior writer at The Boston Consulting Group.

Adapted from the “The Effective Meeting: A Checklist for Success,” Harvard Management Communication Letter (reprint #C0103A), March 2001.