This is The Public Speaker: Quick and Dirty Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills , with your host, Lisa B. Marshall.
Today's sponsor is GoToMeeting. Try it FREE for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast. That's GoToMeeting.com/podcast for a FREE trial. Dave Barry says that meetings are like funerals, "in the sense that you have a gathering of people who are wearing uncomfortable clothing and would rather be somewhere else." He says, "The major difference is that most funerals have a definite purpose." A quick search of Twitter will show you that at any given time someone in the world, somebody is sitting in a boring unproductive meeting. In fact, Geo Perdis recently wrote, "Tweeting at end of long, boring unproductive meeting and before delayed start of next one: priceless." Run More Effective Meetings With this episode I am trying to right this universal wrong, one listener at time. Today I'm going to share with you tried-and-true tips for better and more effective meetings. When you adhere to these guidelines your meetings will be better. Guaranteed. Don't let a sloppy meeting culture influence YOUR meetings. Let your meetings serve as the model to be emulated. Here's how to do it. Plan and Develop the Meeting Purpose, Outcome, and Agenda It sounds obvious, but always first think about the purpose of the meeting. If you need to come to a resolution then a meeting is usually a good idea. If you are only sharing information, then another approach might be better (maybe a podcast, email, or a report). Next, you need to ask, "What's the ideal outcome?" (Of course, if you can't come up with a good purpose and ideal outcome, then you don't need a meeting at all), so at the top of the agenda you can bullet the purpose and projected outcome. Underneath than you can list the required and optional attendees. Then, for each topic, just briefly list who, what, and how long. Use action words like decide, discuss, review or select. For example, you can put: * Review conference location recommendations – Paul G. - 3 min * Select location – Team - 7 min The content should drive the length of the meeting. Don't forget to include necessary breaks and time for social activities; they are just as important as the content. Establish a start time, then calculate the end time, include those on the agenda too.
It's best practice to pre-publish the agenda. I suggest pasting it directly into an email (because most people don't open attachments). If possible, send it out a couple of days in advance, at least one because you'll want give time for review. Some people might want to add or modify the agenda and that's best handled one-on-one. One big advantage of sending it out ahead of time is that it might encourage refection, preparation, and maybe even attendance. Oh, if the agenda doesn't go out ahead of time, it doesn't mean you shouldn't create one-- even if that means creating the agenda as the first thing you do in the meeting. Respect Time So start your meeting on time, even if everyone isn't there. If this isn't your standard (yet), it's a good idea to warn people that that you really are going to start on time. Trust me, people will get the message. Maybe not on the first meeting but after that. By the way, this also applies when you come back from breaks.
Of course you should also remember to end your meeting on time or earlier if you can. Participants will love it and will also remember you for that. The key for keeping meetings on schedule is to manage the time for each individual segment. Someone needs to be responsible for paying attention to this. It could be a facilitator, can be the note taker or a participant that manages the time.
I've found using a 2-minute warning system works great. So when 2 minutes are left in a segment, the timer raises a large yellow sheet of paper. When there's only a minute left, he raises a red sheet and says in a soft, polite voice "One minute, Lisa." Once the system has been in place a while, that's usually enough to keep people on track. However, if the speaker is running over, the timer may need to say, again in a soft, polite tone, "Sorry, Lisa, we're out of time. Does this need to go in the parking lot?” The idea is for your team “valet” to “park” the issues that might need further attention, most people put it on a white board or flip chart. If participants are really engaged, occasionally a topic will need more time; and for sure, issues will going to come up that weren't on the agenda. At the end of the meeting, each item should be reviewed and assigned an owner for follow-up. The parking lot concept is such a powerful tool that definitly to keep meetings on track. By the way, it's a good idea to look at all the parking lot lists quarterly to see if there are any recurring issues that are coming up. Keep a Written Record Another very common meeting mistake is to not record decisions and next steps. It's very important to get explicit, public buy-in and task ownership. "Lisa, you said you're going to contact the University to see which dates in September are available, right?" Of course that forces me to commit in front of everyone. The note taker then records the task, the owner, and the deadline. By the way, that's what meeting notes are --just a summary of the next steps--nothing more. A quick summary should be done after each meeting segment and voiced again at the end of the meeting to ensure there's an owner for all tasks. Maintain a Positive Engaged Environment As you probably already know, maintaining an upbeat, engaging environment, it's so important. One expert recommends starting each meeting by writing the desired outcome on the whiteboard and then asking participants to communicate something positive. The facilitator should ask questions and encourage feedback from all participants. “Bob, what are your thoughts on that? Mary, do you agree?” Consider include a ground rule that only one person speaks at a time so that everyone can follow the conversation. The role of the facilitator is to manage the meeting process while the meeting leader manages meeting content. I think it's difficult for one person to manage both of those roles at the same time. So for important meetings, it is really a good if you can choose different people.
Commonly I get asked about what to do about people who come late. I don't think latecomers should be publicly embarrassed, there is always legitimate reasons for people to come late. At the same time, I also don't think the people should think to make any effort to catch them up when they arrive. Becouse if he is a VIP and if you feel the need to say something, just simply state where you are in the agenda. For example “We just started the topic number two.” Be a Better Meeting Participant As a meeting participant, make it a point to properly greet (remember the episode on handshaking) and say good-bye to your fellow participants too, especially people you are meeting for the first time; it's good manners and it's good for building your internal network. Come prepared to meetings with ideas and be open to a healthy discussion. Be sure to verbally support good ideas instead of silently agreeing or worse-- not paying attention or texting messages to someone across the room.
Speaking of technology, it's distracting. I encourage you to consider a no Blackberries, no cell phone conversations in the room, and a no laptop rule. Yep, I said it, a no laptop rule! Success of meetings depends on engaged, focused people. Enough said.
Follow Up After the meeting you need to follow up. Quickly distribute the notes and update any project plans. You may even want to check-in on progress mid-way between meetings. Finally, the last step is to think about what was effective or ineffective in the meeting so you can continue to improve your process.
So there you have it: tried-and-true tips for more effective and productive meetings. By adhering to a slightly more rigid meeting process you can make significant gains in productivity. Participants will feel the time invested in your meetings was well spent. And with your help, everyone of you, we all can avoid death by meeting!
This is Lisa B. Marshall. Passionate about communication; your success is my business.
Administrative Business trips are profitability killers. The average trip costs one thousand dollars. That's why I recommend GoToMeeting -- the award-winning online meeting service brought to you by CITRIX . Just $49 a month you get UNLIMITED online meetings! Plus, voice over IP and phone conferencing is FREE! With just a click you can host sales presentations, training sessions, product demos or collaborative sessions – right from your computer! It's so easy – you'll have your first meeting running in seconds! I've used GoToMeeting …it's great. You can try Go To Meeting FREE for 30 days. But you must visit go to meeting dot com slash podcast. That's GoToMeeting.com/podcast for the FREE 30 day trial. P.S. Because of space restrictions, I stuck with tried and true approaches and left out some fun and fresh strategies for effective meetings. So I wrote about those on my Art of Speaking Business blog. I also included a link to Dave's Barry's funny article, How to Attend a Meeting, along with other resources for you to look at. All the links are in the show notes found at www.publicspeaker.quickanddirtytips.com.
Your Help Finally I need your help. As you know I'm passionate about communication. It's my dream to help as many people as I can - teachers, students, business professionals, podcasters, ministers even - really anyone who wants to improve their communication and leadership skills. If you've got a crazy idea or even just a regular idea to help me spread the word about this show, I'd love to hear it. Send your ideas to publicspeaker@quickanddirtytips.com . All ideas will be considered. If I choose and your idea, I'll provide you (or someone you appoint) six hours of private coaching. For more details click the link in the show notes.
If you have a question about how to communicate better at work, leave a voicemail at 206-350-7970. Or email publicspeaker@quickanddirtytips.com. Sing up for Lisa's news letter or get information about speeches and workshops by visiting lisabmarshall.com. You can find the transcript of this show and links to connect with Lisa at publicspeaker.quickanddirtytips.com .
