The Test of a Good Meeting
What is the point of a business meeting? For Pierre-Francois, chef du cabinet of a leading French government ministry, they are "a great opportunity to sabotage other ministers' plans."
But purpose of meetings is unclear to many managers. Some meetings are held because they are always held. Others meetings are a convenient way of appearing busy while sharing and avoiding personal responsibility for anything. And far too many meetings go on far too long.
The Queen has an effective way of keeping meetings short. When the Privy Council of senior ministers meet her, the meeting is a standing meeting. Even windbag politicians get to point faster when they are forced to stand.
The basic test for any meeting is simple: "what will be different as a result of this meeting?"
The difference test can be refined into three more questions:
- "What did I learn from the meeting?"
- "What did I contribute or achieve in the meeting?"
- "What will I and others do differently as a result of the meeting.?"
If you are inviting people to attend one of your meetings, only invite those people who will be able to answer all three questions positively by the end of the meeting.
Construct the agenda so that you can achieve this result.
A classic error is to go to a meeting to "get exposure" to senior management.
If you have nothing to contribute, then you will have achieved the goal of getting exposure -- all the senior managers will now assume you are someone with nothing useful to say or contribute.
Of course, it may be that the formal agenda offers nothing for you, but the most critical part of the meeting may be the five minutes before and after the formal meeting.
This may be your chance to quickly meet someone who has been very hard to get to, to put down a marker with them and to set up a full, follow up meeting with them.
Life is short and meetings can be long. Don't waste life in pointless meetings.
(Image: Myk Martinez, CC2.0)