Your meeting should have a purpose, and everyone in the meeting should agree on what it is.
This is the most common advice that I give people when they ask how to make their meetings more effective. It’s also one of the most powerful.
I’ve heard Roger Schwarz describe an organization that was serious about this. They had posters in every one of their conference rooms. These posters said (as Roger tells it):
If you are in this room for a meeting and you don’t know what the purpose of this meeting is, what your role is, or what the agenda is, you are prohibited from letting this meeting begin until you get answers to that question.
I have threatened to hang signs like these up at several places I’ve worked, though I’ve never actually done it. I have seen – and I suspect you have, too – the consequences of starting a meeting without a clear purpose. Meetings don’t have to be terrible. They can be helpful, engaging, and productive. They have the potential to bring people together to do their best work. One of the simplest things we can do to realize that potential is to start with a clear purpose.
How? Here are a few things you can do.
If you are the meeting convener, figure out why you are calling the meeting. Communicate that to the participants clearly, and repeat it several times. Suppose you are getting the group together to decide on next quarter’s marketing focus. You could:
- Create a calendar event called “Decide on next quarter’s marketing focus.”
- In the invite, summarize the previous discussion and describe the steps you plan to take during the meeting to make the decision.
- In your interactions leading up to the meeting, remind people, “We’ll be meeting tomorrow to decide on next quarter’s marketing focus. The details are in the invite.”
- At the beginning of the meeting, start by saying, “We’re here today to decide on next quarter’s marketing focus. Before we get started, what questions does anyone have about that?” (It’s even more effective if at the same time you’re showing a slide that says, “Purpose: Decide on next quarter’s marketing focus.”)
- During the meeting, if the discussion seems to go off-topic, say, “How does this relate to deciding next year’s marketing focus?”
- At the end of the meeting, say, “Thank you for helping to decide on next year’s marketing focus. What we’ve decided is…”
But what if it’s not your meeting? Then you can do what Roger Schwarz suggests: Ask. If you are in a meeting and don’t know the purpose, chances are you aren’t the only one. Asking the convener to clarify what they’re asking you all to do is a potentially vulnerable move. It’s also one that has tremendous benefits for everyone involved. There are different ways of phrasing this question; you need to find one that works for you in your situation. One I tend to use is, “Before we get in too deep, can you clarify what you want us to accomplish here today? I’m a little hazy on that, and I want to make sure I’m focusing on the things that will make the best use of our time.” In one company I worked for, I was known for asking, “How will we know when we can leave?” (This is not the most diplomatic option.)
Every meeting exists to achieve some purpose. It has a better chance of doing that when everyone knows what it is.
