I remember one time when I was going to go do ‘stuff’ with my friends. You know what ‘stuff’ is, right? Anyway, as I was going out the door, my mom called out, “Take your brother with you!” The presence of my little brother made sure that we would have to substitute different ‘stuff’ to do, much to the consternation of my buddies.
The fact that I don’t have a little brother shouldn’t take away from the main point of my anecdote; the participants in an activity will determine its outcome. Meetings are no different.
When you’re building your agenda, consider the participants you need to make the meeting work and only invite them. How do you know if they are the right participants? If the agenda topics are related to their ability to perform their job, then they are the right people. If they only have minor involvement, they should not be invited.
Making participation in a meeting functionally based will reduce the number of people in the meeting and should take some of the politics out of it. I remember one aerospace company I worked for would have 20 people in a meeting when only four or five of the participants actually had information and needed to work together. The rest of the participants were there, apparently, to keep that small band from floating away.
In organizations where there are territorial battles going on, limiting participation is going to be tough. A good tactic to try is to have lower level working groups meet on specific subjects and make recommendations to the leaders for action.
Another good tactic is to have those delivering information present it in a specified time slot within the meeting with a brief question and answer period. Then the presenter leaves. This will cut down on extended questioning and help get the group focused.
Upcoming in this series, additional strategies for making meetings more effective:
Watch the time
‘Parking Lot’ off-topic items
End on time…every time
That is, if we’re invited to participate.
Dispatches From The Front 