It does not matter what job you hold or what kind of company or industry you work in — meetings are inevitable.
Sadly, many meetings are ineffective.
Sometimes meetings end with no action item or a next step assignment, which pretty much ensures the meeting will be repeated, probably with the same outcome. I once held a position on a committee at a higher education institution where I worked, and I swear we had the exact same meeting for 10 months in a row until I finally left the committee out of frustration.
Sometimes people who are involved in meetings are silently resisting the decisions that are being made. When the next scheduled meeting on the topic is held, it is discovered that they made no progress in between meetings, despite the fact that action items and next steps had been assigned.
And sometimes one or two people (often the manager or leader of the meeting) will dominate a meeting so that the attendance of others is immaterial. Decisions were going to made in favor of the dominant individual(s) regardless, and the meeting itself was just for optics. I've sat in many a meeting in which I thought to myself, "I don't know why I was invited to this. It makes no difference if I am in the room."
According to a 2019 report released by the online meeting-organization tool Doodle, poorly organized meetings cost U.S. businesses nearly $400 million. The majority of waste could be avoided by ensuring everyone in the meeting is heard: the resistors, the disinterested and the befuddled.
Here are three tips to ensure everyone is heard in meetings. While ideally it would be the leader/facilitator of the meeting who takes responsibility for ensuring everyone is heard, truly, anyone can take on the responsibility. What's most important is that open communication occurs so that real progress can be made and you are not fated to repeating the same meetings week after week.
Ask Thought-Provoking Questions
Very often the leader of a meeting also leads the thinking. Meeting participants believe "if the manager thinks this is the right course of action, then I probably should agree." But better outcomes come as a result of exploring all possibilities, options and, in some cases, ramifications.
To open up thinking and communication, ask thought-provoking questions, such as:
• What questions do you have?
• What are your concerns in regards to your role or responsibilities if we were to pursue this route?
• What concerns haven't we surfaced yet?
• Are other departments or individuals — who aren't represented at this meeting — impacted by this decision? (Note: This includes customers.)
Consider Stakeholders
Departmental meetings tend to be laser-focused on the work, goals and action items of that department and often miss the big picture of how the organization operates as a whole, and how the department contributes to that whole. As a result of not voicing organizational impacts, many departmental meetings have to be repeated in light of "new information."
To help meeting participants to think more broadly (and critically) about their work and the decisions being made, ensure that the perspectives of other stakeholders in the company are considered before final decisions are made.
For example, consider a team of five marketing professionals who are meeting to determine which tradeshows to attend, as a vendor, the following year. The group decides that they will attend four, but before taking the next step (like registering for an event, or buying collateral) they ask the following questions to ensure their internal stakeholder needs have been considered and their decisions will not be undermined or resisted.
• Finance will want to know: "How did you pick these four? Was cost a factor? How so?"
• Operations will want to know: "Is there a particular product line we are promoting this year? Is it the same for every trade show or will each have its own focus?"
• HR will want to know: "How do you plan on staffing these events? Do we need to find temp agencies in each town?"
• The CEO will want to know: "What is the purpose of attendance? Are you gathering leads or making sales? How will you track your outcomes?"
Questions Before Answers
A great technique to have for any kind of meeting (even a family dinner) is a "rule" that before anyone can respond to another person's comment, they must first ask a question of the speaker. The question has to have the intent of digging for more information or asking for clarification, rather than arguing, making a decision or jumping into action. For example:
Wrong:
Speaker: "I think we need to extend operating hours to include Saturdays."
Response: "There's no way we're going to get anyone to want to work Saturdays."
Right:
Speaker: "I think we need to extend operating hours to include Saturdays."
Response: "Do we have customer feedback that supports this idea?"
Since meetings are inevitable and since few of us enjoy them — especially when it seems that our input is not necessary — it's smart to ensure they are as effective as possible. Following these guidelines for ensuring everyone is heard in meetings will help your meetings to be productive and move the organizational goals forward.
