Personal notes on how to run an effective meeting and how to evaluate whether or not I should go to a meeting.
The goal of most meetings is to agree on a definition or to make a decision. The meeting goal should be clear and understood by anyone in your organization. A meeting without a clearly defined goal is going to be a waste of time that would better be spent elsewhere.
Perhaps you will find that after writing the goal you do not need to have a meeting because the goal is directly accomplishable through other means.
Most of the work in running a meeting happens up front. The ideal meeting is a short formality where all participants are pleasantly surprised at the shared vocabulary and consensus and it ends early.
Learn about the subject matter involved in the goal from likely meeting participants. Gather opinions, data, and perspectives on the goal. Synthesize an opinion and clear chain of reasoning based on your learnings.
This opinion may be a plan or a decision. Socialize this opinion with stakeholders, clarify each stakeholder’s position, and resolve any conflicts between them when possible. In lieu of a resolution, clarify and escalate the conflict to leadership before the meeting and synchronize with leadership’s opinion.
This process is a lot of work. It is possible that after good prework is completed, the goal of the meeting is met and no meeting must be held.
Include preparatory work, often reading, that the participants will need to complete before the meeting.
Participants in the meeting should be able to evaluate whether they need to attend the meeting depending on this agenda. The fewer people the better. Meetings are expensive.
With sufficient pre-work, many likely participants will be confident that their opinion is represented after reading the agenda and prep materials, making them less likely to attend, reducing the cost of the meeting.
The best way to do this is to use your organization’s calendar. If you do not have a shared calendar, aggressively solicit availability. If participants are not forthcoming, call them and propose times, starting from the most important person to the least important person depending on your goals. Good pre-work reduces the complexity of this task by reducing meeting headcount.
During the meeting, take notes or assign someone to take notes. Take control of the time. Direct work items offline with individual owners. If anyone has not read the pre-work, take 2-3 minutes as a group to read it. Present the person who can champion the plan and find that everyone agrees or that the conflict is clear and leadership can resolve it.
After the meeting, send a dated note describing the decisions made, by whom (everyone in the meeting) and definitions used. Thank individuals for their help in resolving the situation.