Gaining Value From Meetings

Like the weather, everyone complains about meetings, but no one does anything about it. But can they?

Meetings are huge consumers of the business day, whether in-person around a conference table or over the phone using a web conferencing service. Many people consider them mostly a waste of time - often justifiably. And that's unfortunate, because they don't need to be.

In that communication is the ongoing exchange of ideas, information and insights among people that leads to better understanding, meetings can and should be the most effective form of communication in a business environment. Unlike bouncing around emails or leaving voice mails and then waiting days for responses, meetings enable the right people to get together to share ideas and information and make necessary decisions on the spot.

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. Some meetings are poorly planned and executed. Key people straggle in late. Participants digress. People come unprepared. Meetings run late. Decisions are postponed repeatedly.

No wonder so many people think they're a waste of time.

Some meetings may not be necessary. Establish rules and a litmus test to justify meetings, and urge everyone to abide by them. Following are some rules and guidelines I've found helpful.

• One person takes charge, coordinating and securing the meeting time and location, identifying the right attendees, assuring they are invited and informed of the meeting's purpose and agenda, managing the discussion, and handling any necessary follow-up.
• One-hour meetings seem to be the norm, but if your agenda is long and complicated, extend it. Better to plan long and end early than to run over. Ending ahead of schedule is "found" time for participants.
• What is the meeting's purpose? It should serve as an efficient means to exchange information and ideas among three or more people on the way to reaching understanding and decisions. The purpose should be clearly spelled out in the invitation.
• Though most meetings' purpose is to reach decisions or agreements, that's not a requirement. Information exchanges can justify get-togethers, where attendees bring ideas, insights and information from different corners of the organization for the benefit of all. Informational meetings also help bring newcomers and outsiders (e.g., consultants) up to speed quickly.
• Who should come? Are all invitees necessary? If you've been in large meetings, you know a meeting's effectiveness decreases and its duration increases with each additional person. Do all attendees have something to contribute, either in terms of information and ideas or decision-making authority?
  
• If others require information from the meeting but would have little or nothing to contribute, don't invite them. Inform them later of what came from the meeting in terms of decisions or actions to be taken, and whether (and how) they impact them.
• Establish an agenda, distribute it with the invitation, and abide by it. In addition to discussion topics, the agenda should include both starting and ending times. Hold firmly to that so that attendees can plan their own time accordingly.
  
• Stay on topic. If participants digress or spend too much time on one subject, re-center the discussion and suggest a second meeting later for those people. Discourage side discussions.
  
• Never close a meeting without consensus on clearly delineated decisions and/or actions, with assigned responsibilities.
• Finish the meeting on time.
• A follow-up meeting may be necessary if incomplete information prevented a decision. If so, identify the people responsible for gathering the necessary information and assign a deadline. Schedule a second meeting (if necessary).
• Follow up. Keep minutes and distribute them to attendees, with emphasis on unfinished business and action items.
• Reconnect later with those who've been assigned action items. Make sure they are able to meet their deadlines. If they require additional resources or time, help them get the necessary help and inform the other participants of the need to postpone the follow-up meeting.

Those whose daily business lives are filled with meetings may find these rules and guidelines obvious. But your colleagues and managers will hold you in greater esteem if you consciously apply them to your own meetings. And, your organization will operate more effectively.

Hands-On Leadership

When I was young and new to the business world, I thought that the higher one rises in a corporate hierarchy, the easier it gets. Boy, was I wrong. I was probably thinking myopically about executive perquisites – the C-Suite, the corner office and all that goes with it. In fact, the opposite is true, as any senior-level manager will tell you.

In many ways, rising through a corporate structure doesn’t relieve you of unpleasant tasks. It just adds more. It means you learn how things work and what makes an organization excel. Sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty, even if you’re at the top. In fact, leaders who disdain the dirty work likely will fail because they grow out of touch with the organization they purport to run. I’ve seen instances of that, and they were not pretty.

A large component of the counsel I provide clients is based on those experiences – both good and bad leaders I’ve been exposed to. Business books that are full of real world anecdotes also provide valuable insights.

So when it comes to business books, I’m partial to those on leadership where the core message concerns the merits of good communications and hands-on leadership. That’s one reason I like John Kotter’s books on leadership so much. He recognizes the central importance played by consistent, relevant and continuous communications, and how hands-on leadership is the most effective kind of communications.

In that regard, among the best I’ve read are “Shackleton’s Way,” by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell, “Inside Steve’s Brain,” by Leander Kahney, and anything written by John Kotter. To this category, add a new one: “Walk The Walk,” by Alan Deutschman.

Deutschman’s counsel leans heavily towards hands-on involvement by leaders, and the truth of the expression “actions speak louder than words.” This book is full of relevant and telling anecdotes about real world business leaders who excel at direct involvement and communication.

One of my favorites concerns Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s. Deutschman relates how Kroc visited franchises frequently and, as he approached the restaurant, would pick up trash in the parking lot before even setting foot in the place.

Cleanliness was Kroc’s central tenet. He rightly believed that clean restaurants would appeal to his customers, bring them back for repeat visits, and build loyalty. Of course, he was right. He demonstrated his abiding belief in this truth by actually attending to it himself. As the CEO, he could have come into the restaurant and told the manager that there was trash in the parking lot. Instead, by demonstrating his willingness to do it himself, he elevated the importance of the task. Implicitly, he was saying that if something is important enough for the CEO to do himself, then it must be pretty darned important.

The chapter I found most insightful was the fourth, titled: “You Share The Struggle And The Risk.” Deutschman writes, “Sharing the struggle is vital for anyone who aspires to leadership, whether it’s the CEO of a company with hundreds of thousands of employees or a front-line manager with less than a dozen people.”

He cites Southwest Airlines, where supervisors are considered to be “player-coaches,” helping at times to get the job done, from handling baggage to serving as agents at departure gates. Even the founding CEO, Herb Kelleher, was known to pitch in. He notes that the arrangement has “strengthened the feelings of loyalty coming from teammates, who appreciate the extra help when they’re in a crunch, and it’s made the supervisors become better coaches because they understand the work’s pressures and challenges first-hand.”

Deutschman adds, “Leaders can’t fully grasp the situation until they’ve shared the struggle.”

He quotes a Whole Foods manager who spoke a core truth of successful management: “People don’t work for companies, they work for people.” That simple observation reveals much about successful leadership. The manager or leader who falls back on the vague concept of “the company” to drive loyalty and hard work rather than his/her personal and direct involvement has lost sight of the fact that the organization is, in fact, people working together toward a common goal.

To that point, he concludes the chapter by writing about the “royal visit,” where the “CEO and top executives drop in to see their workers or perhaps toiling in a front-line job on a single day a year, for a few hours at most.” Of such behavior, Deutschman writes, “The real difference comes when a leader is obsessive about getting the firsthand view,” unfiltered by those with an axe to grind, rather than putting on a show of being involved.

The impetus for such involvement must be first and foremost to learn from the first-hand experience, not to pretend to care. Believe me, employees can spot a phony a mile away. They know the difference between a leader who truly wants to learn something and one who just wants to fly the executive flag. If a leader’s reason for the front-line visit is the latter, he/she would be better off just staying in the corner office.