Three Simple Secrets to Running a Remarkable Meeting

“This is so stupid–they asked for my opinion and then ignored it. I don't know why I even bother! From now on, I'm going to just shut my mouth and do my work.”

“Arghhh. We keep rehashing the same conversations. Why can't we make a simple @#%*&% decision?”

“I don't know why we even try! We make a decision and by the time we get back together, no one has done anything we agreed to.”

Sound familiar?

I've heard these words so frequently, in focus groups, in one-on-ones, and even behind closed doors with seasoned managers. If you've been working in organizations for any period of time, you may have said them too.

Everyone hates bad meetings. And bad meetings are everywhere.

If you want to be a great manager, build a reputation of running great meetings, and watch for an immediate improvement in who shows up and what they contribute.

Three Simple Secrets to Running a Remarkable Meeting

1. Communicate a clear objective for the meeting.
   Be clear up front.  Determine if this a “Where are we going?” discussion, or a “How will we get there?” conversation.  If you're not clear, you don't have a fighting chance of an organized dialog. Yes. You can have both conversations in the same meeting, but not at the same time. Put it on the agenda. Reinforce it in your opening remarks. Heck, put it in the meeting invite: “By the end of this meeting, we will have decided __________.”People want to know that something will be accomplished with their time. Make that “something” perfectly clear.  One of our Winning Well clients has started including this message in their Outlook invites

   This meeting’s goal is to reach a decision on xxxx, and to begin to define how we will achieve this, we need your best thinking on _______.

2. Be clear on how decisions will be made.
   Nothing is more frustrating to people than asking for their opinion and ignoring it. Be clear up front as to how the decision will be made.“I need to make this decision, but I would love your input”or “We're going to decide by consensus”or “After 30 minutes of discussion, we're going to take a vote.”Of course, the most important part of this approach is to make a plan and stick to it. If you say the decision will be by consensus, and then hate where the conversation is going and just make the call yourself, you would have been better off making the decision in the shower and communicating it well.
3. Establish accountability for every decision.
   For every next step stop and ask “Who will do what, by when and how will we know?””Joe's got this” is not sufficient.” “Joe will talk to Sue and make a decision about X by Friday and send us an email with what they came up with,” works better.

Very few managers run meetings well. Can you imagine the possibilities if you were known as the go-to for holding a great meeting?