Meeting Leaders Don’t Have to Do It All

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Meetings are important and we spend a lot of time in them. I’ve mentioned before that there are only three reasons to hold a meeting: 1) convey information, 2) solve problems, and 3) make decisions. When we’re having a meeting, we want people to participate at a high level. 

I recently shared with you an article on being a good meeting participant. But for meeting leaders, a piece of feedback they might get is that meetings are boring or not interactive. One of the ways that meeting leaders can add more engagement is by giving meeting participants something to do. For example:

Have someone on the team take minutes. Meeting minutes matter. They’re a record of the meeting and what the group has agreed upon. I like using the SMART format for meeting minutes – specific, measurable, actionable, responsible, and time-bound. Specific refers to the specific goal being agreed upon. Measurement is how the group will measure their success. Actionable are the action steps the group will take. Responsible is who will be responsible for each action step. And time-bound is when each step should be done.  

Couple of things to note. If your organization is great at “We should do this …” and not very good at making it happen, the SMART format can be helpful for turning ideas into action. Also, if you have someone who never seems to have any to-do items after a meeting, this approach can be a way to make sure work is distributed fairly. The person taking minutes will be able to show who on the team is doing what. Speaking of who is doing what … this is each employee’s opportunity to try to do something they will like. If you know that you need to volunteer to take on a task … take on the one you want. 

One more thing about minutes. The SMART format also helps groups confirm that they can live with the timeline. Sometimes we’re quick to say, “Oh yeah, I can do it.” when the reality is, we can’t. The group can look at their timeline and say, “Leonard has three tasks to complete this month. Is that realistic? Should someone else do one of these tasks?”. 

Ask someone to create and monitor the parking lot. The term parking lot is used for those items that come up during the meeting that aren’t on the agenda. Instead of discussing them – and possibly not getting to planned agenda items, the topic is put in the parking lot to be discussed later. Someone on the team can be responsible for identifying topics not on the agenda and putting items on the parking lot so they are remembered and added to the next meeting agenda. 

Ask a participant to monitor the time. Unfortunately, my guess is we all know what it feels like to have a meeting run over on time. And in all fairness, sometimes we might be having an in-depth conversation and lose track of time. It doesn’t change the fact that we have other obligations that we need to complete. Having a person speak up occasionally to say, “We’ve been chatting about this for 20 minutes and still have three agenda items to cover. Should we wrap up and continue the conversation next meeting?”.  

These are just a few things that meeting leaders can do to create more interaction. And frankly, run a better meeting. The group sets good goals with detailed action steps. They stay focused on the agenda. The meeting ends on time. 

Meeting leaders need to remember that there is no rule that says they need to do everything. Ask others to get involved. Before the next meeting, go to a couple of participants and ask, “Would you mind keeping our parking lot at the next meeting?” Participants come to the meeting prepared – for the agenda and their role. 

I mentioned at the beginning of this article that meetings are important. Organizations should make it a priority to have good meetings. It will result in better communication, participation, and productivity.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Nashville, TN

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