In the past several weeks, I’ve seen a theme developing on LinkedIn discussion channels. Folks are pointing out the problem with colleagues, especially leaders, taking pride in how busy they are. Here’s a particular piece making the rounds. Maybe you’re caught in this cycle too, rushing from meeting to meeting, compressing every moment of your schedule (and often into your off-work hours) into collaborations, reports, and sharing sessions.
The problem seems to have compounded in the COVID era. Over the last sixteen months I’ve certainly found myself comparing weekly schedules to determine if I’ve taken up enough real estate on my calendar with calls, chats, touch bases or whatever else you want to call them. The state of toxic busy-ness has infected every aspect of business.
As we continue to transition, maybe it’s time to revisit some positive meeting habits we’ve lost in the scrum of the last year and a half. I happen to think these will translate to any industry, but I find them immensely helpful in the advocacy world. A little bit of structure, properly applied to a quick meeting, will actually prioritize your priorities and allow you to, maybe just maybe, get a few minutes back in your life.
Start by Stating the Question
This one was especially poignant for me in the past couple of weeks. While I was experiencing great conversations around a few key topics in my work, it was painfully obvious that often nobody seemed to have a clear handle on the specific questions we were trying to answer.
This boils down to a basic concept in leadership and communication: capturing the “why”.
If you, and the others in your meeting don’t have a clear understanding of what question your committee or team is trying to answer, how can you effectively guide the discussion to a meaningful conclusion? Sure, most of us still get a great agenda ahead of a big idea session – but do we know the actual objectives before us?
In trying to address this in my own meetings, I often build the meaningful actions/questions into the agenda. I’ll list the topic area, key experts who will speak to the topic, and then directly state the question we are trying to answer (e.g. Does the board support funding this research, and at what level?) This may seem incredibly basic, but especially with volunteer organizations, where leaders are seen as stewards, stating the issue and possible results will prevent the indecision and inaction. When you start with the why, the what and the how become attainable.
If it’s a 30 Minute Meeting, it Can (probably) Be a 15 Minute Meeting
You know what? When people know you value their time, they’re probably going to value yours.
I picked this concept up from an old Marine Corps connection. He was insistent that our staff meetings were too long by half – every week. So what did he do? He started scheduling for half the time they’d been originally. Yeah, he just did it.
And you know what? Nobody questioned it. Almost overnight, we cut the chit chat, the unnecessary speculative discussions, and got right to the meat of the issues in front of us. He got precious minutes back in his calendar, we covered the most important issues in the room, and we all got a little more back in our own workday as well.
Stunning.
Have an Entrance Strategy
This last tip is about as simplistic as it comes: have a plan for introductions.
I get it, we all want to be recognized for our participation and contribution to the discussion. We also want to know who is in the room with us as that may inform how we respond to given topics. But, surely there’s a better way than the round robin approach we’ve seen in COVID (and for the love of all things holy don’t get me started on the popcorn method).
Here’s a bold suggestion. If you’re the meeting lead, take it on yourself to introduce the participants and their connection to the issue at hand. Not only will you contain the flow of information, you’ll also be establishing a personal connection to each attendee, and that’s just good manners.
Best applied for smaller meetings, this approach takes the guesswork, the dreaded ums and uhs, and miscues out of the equation. When you make those connections to the issues up front, and manage how they are delivered, you are once again prioritizing the priorities of your meeting.
A pinch of planning like this will deliver a pound of returns. Three minutes here, and five minutes there add up. Quickly. Establishing a clear why, setting a tighter timeline, and having a plan for the pleasantries may just help you crack that code on your own busy-ness.
What other strategies are you trying to implement to improve your own meeting productivity? How are you helping get those precious moments back into your life?
Part of the Possible 