The Easiest Way to Make Meetings Shorter

I facilitated a couple of full-day meetings last week. In both, I implemented a simple process that made the discussions quicker and better. Try this structure to make your meetings shorter (and more effective).

Why Meetings Are So Inefficient

You’d need a page longer than your arm to list why some meetings are poor uses of time, including many mistakes made ahead of anyone assembling. Let’s ignore the dysfunction associated with missing agendas, mismatched goals and participants, and inappropriate timing for what you’re trying to accomplish and zoom in on problems with how your team works through a single agenda item.

If you’re anything like most of the teams I see in action, it goes something like this:

As the item sponsor, the chair turns to you and gives you the floor, “Over to you!” (So far, so good.)

You fire up your presentation and start with your overview slide, which will orient the team to the discussion you want to have.

When you get to the third bullet on your overview slide, where you mention that you’ll discuss roll-out strategies, Amira throws up her hand and says, “I thought we agreed that roll-out wasn’t going to start until my team had signed off.”

Uh-oh, the dam is broken. From here on out, you’re trying to keep your head above the rushing current.

You try to reassure Amira, but in doing so, you say something that twigs Bob, causing him to raise a separate concern.

You jump to your seventh slide to assuage Bob.

Deb doesn’t understand what you’re talking about on slide seven because you skipped some of the context you intended to share. So, you flip back to slide three to catch everyone up.

Thirty minutes later, everyone is dizzy and discombobulated. You’ve only covered 40% of the issue, and the topic must be tabled until your next meeting. Wow, what a waste.

How to Work Through an Agenda Item

Instead of unleashing chaos and spending lots of time accomplishing little, implement a standard discussion structure like this.

Prime the Discussion Ahead of Time

Ok, I’m cheating for a moment because this is not something to do in the meeting. Still, if you distribute a primer document before the meeting with context, necessary information, and the questions you will ask during the meeting, you’ll be halfway to a great meeting before you start.

Uninterrupted Presentation

When the item sponsor starts, give them a fixed amount of time to present without interruptions. This will allow them to reiterate the discussion’s purpose and cover the most important material in a logical order. By guaranteeing the presenter a set amount of time, they can prepare and optimize their approach.

This presentation should NOT be a regurgitation of the primer. Instead, think of it as a facilitation tool to help the sponsor walk the group through the questions that need to be addressed, using only the most salient information and the conversation prompts on the screen.

One other note. Often, during this time, someone will interrupt with a clarifying question. That question is usually quick and innocuous. The problem is that once one person asks a question, everyone else feels it’s their right to ask one, too. In my experience, even the one question opens the floodgates. If you allow a clarifying question, have a rule that it’s only one at a time. The better alternative is to make the primer an interactive document where you can clear up those clarifying questions in advance.

The uninterrupted presentation should take up a quarter to a third of the time you’ve allotted to the topic. In a 50-minute meeting, that’s about 15 minutes.

Questions of Clarification

If you get through an uninterrupted presentation, you’re doing great! By this point, the participants are going to be raring to go. And when I say “go,” I mean to start rebutting, opining, agreeing, or challenging. They want to have their say. Don’t go there yet.

You’ll have a better discussion if you reserve the second round for questions of clarification. What wasn’t clear? Which parts of the presenter’s thought process need to be better elucidated? How else might you interpret the data? What would the sponsor like you to focus on?

You don’t need to belabor this section. If you require it to be a certain length, participants will start sneaking their opinions disguised as questions. “Don’t you think that this would be better if…?” Name it if this happens. Then, ask again for any clarification questions, and when you don’t get any, move to the next section. It’s probably around 10-15% of your allotted time. In a 50-minute meeting, that’s five to ten minutes.

Debate and Deliberation

Now you’re ready for the good stuff. This is why you’re meeting: the chance to have some productive conflict about the best way to proceed. You want to focus this time on novel contributions. What do you need to pay attention to if you’re going to make a good decision? What perspectives have you not yet considered? How will this play out in implementation?

If you get to the point of violent agreement, solicit different perspectives. If you get none, move to the close. If you get the opposite, unrelenting opposition, reiterate the concerns you’ve heard and ask if there’s anything you’re missing. If not, move to the close. In a 50-minute meeting, you want 20-25 minutes to be reserved for deliberation.

You’ll notice that this section is not called decision-making. Teams shouldn’t make decisions. You need to know who owns the decision and ensure that this section of the meeting serves their needs. Your goal should not be to reach a consensus; it should be to give the decision-maker confidence that they’ve got the insight they need to make the optimal decision.

Topic Close

Finally, when you reach 95% of your time, stop the discussion and move to the close. Even if you’re not done, stop. It’s better to use the time to stick the landing than to cram in another new point. When you close, summarize the key points, especially any concerns or opposition, share your next steps, and agree on when you’ll come back to the team.

This structured approach has obvious benefits in helping you move more efficiently and effectively through an agenda item. Beyond that, it helps people feel heard and respected, which is particularly valuable if the person presenting to your team is a guest. Try it at your next meeting, and let me know how it goes.

Additional Resources

How to go faster

Running a great monthly meeting

How to Evaluate the Quality of Meetings

Brian Tracey has some good advice in 7 Ways to Make Meetings More Efficient

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Published on March 24, 2024 08:14
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