Meetings can be Productive!

Do you look forward to regularly scheduled meetings?  Personally I have looked forward to them as both an attendee and facilitator.  I had found meetings to be productive and a good chance to catch up with my team.  Perhaps I was lucky to have some good managers over the years that did an excellent job at making these meetings productive.  Unfortunately I have been at meetings that were boring as well.  My hope today is to share some things that can help make your meetings more productive and also change your mindset so you look forward to regularly scheduled conferences.

I worked for an organization that was built on certain core values.  As part of our culture we were committed to being highly professional and well versed in our knowledge. We had regularly scheduled team meetings on a six week basis with larger regional and national meetings routinely interspersed at the end of a quarter.  This was an expensive endeavor since our meetings were off site and many people were flown to these meetings.  Airfare, hotels, food and entertainment was the cost of doing business.

v  Why would a company go to such expense to have these meetings?

v  Were the meetings truly necessary?

v  What was the purpose of the meeting?

v  Each meeting day meant that our sales team was not in the field-how much lost revenues would this entail?

These four questions will be fundamental to this blog but quick answers to #1 and #4 are in this paragraph. Each company is different but the culture of our organization was built on professionalism and knowledge.  The company was involved in a rapidly changing environment due to technology, regulatory agencies and expansion of the organization. The amount of time and money put into building our organization was a core belief of the owners of the company.  This alone justified the expense and short-term loss of revenues associated with the meeting.  Lost revenues were quickly recovered by our improvements and strengthening of “best practices” shared at these meetings. Now that we have answered these two, the remainder of this blog will be focused on making the most out of the meeting.

Were the meetings necessary?

In environments where things are changing rapidly, it is vital to have an “ear to the ground”.  Quick and effective communication is crucial to maintenance and growth.  In addition due to the rapid expansion of our sales team, new team members were coming on board regularly.  The ability to rapidly acclimate to our company and interact with others was part of our core structure.  Our company was “family-owned” and we were able to maintain the personality of a smaller company as we grew 10 fold in a dozen years.  There was also additional learning to be done and we operated in a tightly regulated market which obligated us to comply with outside regulatory agencies.

How do we make sure that we have productive meetings?

v  Preparation ~ Begin preparing at the conclusion of the meeting that you just completed. Carry a meeting folder with you and jot down ideas as they come up.  This way you will not forget them and have a good amount of topics for possible discussion.

v  Agenda ~ Create a “pre-meeting” list of ideas that you will want to cover.  Send this out a week or two prior to the meeting.  Ask for feedback and other items that your team would like to discuss.  Finalize the agenda a day or two prior to the meeting and again submit to your team asking them to review and prepare to share ideas/best practices etc…

v  Delegate ~ Select presenters from the team to cover certain areas of the agenda.  Review all items prior to meeting to ensure that there is agreement on items and discussion.

v  Follow through ~ There is nothing as frustrating as sitting through a meeting, debating issues, reaching conclusions and making suggestions only to see absolutely nothing come of it. My “rule of thumb” for a successful meeting is that if “only one idea is generated and followed up on” it is a successful one.  We gain a lot of great ideas from meeting with our colleagues.  The ability to follow through with all suggestions and recommendations.  You can help drive this by summarizing and recapping the meeting with specifics as far as follow-up. 

v  Gratitude ~ Thank your attendees for their attendance and participation!

A few other things to be thinking about…

v  Start on time – End on time!

v  Stay focused and ask for the team to stay focused.  Set up ground rules for meeting.

v  Create a “parking lot” for other issues.  Handle after the meeting.

v  Schedule regular breaks – start back on time.

Unfortunately, I often have heard managers and representatives complain about upcoming meetings. Nothing can drain the happiness from you faster than a long, unproductive meeting. As manager you have two outcomes to a meeting.  Success or failure! Treat your meeting as a positive experience, get pumped up and you will see the results of your meeting show in increased sales.

Always remember that meetings are great times to recognize people in front of their peers.  Take a moment and look for ways to “elevate” your people when the team is together. Always share credit for the good things and do not be afraid to accept the blame for when things do not go well.