06/02/2023 –
By Daniel Colombo
We already know that meetings can be endless. That is why many people no longer want to have meetings, they get bored and even end up absenting themselves for whatever reason, especially in the world of work.
The tedium that occurs threatens the effectiveness and good use of the time of those who participate.
In Latin America, up to 40% of time is wasted in unproductive meetings.
How can meeting aversion be reversed? How to diagram them so that they are fast, agile and effective?
Why do meetings that might be short get long?
Before moving forward, I invite you to think regarding some aspects that make many meetings take forever:
Lack of planning and disorganization.
Little appreciation of the time factor.
Absence of periodic review of the usefulness of meeting.
There is no tracking of topics.
lateness
Participants do not come prepared or with everything they need.
The ego gets in the way and the desire to show off and confront others appears.
The 3 tips to shorten meetings (the last one is my favorite)
Here I propose three practical and concrete tips, to be able to manage them and make the most of them:
1) Organize the meeting well from the beginning
Unplanned meetings, or made as an obligation, do not work as before. For example, the follow-up meetings might perhaps be transformed into 20-minute micro-meetings, once a week, instead of wasting two or three hours where everyone tells their activities. You also have to invite only the essential people, and not copy email chains that the only thing they do is hinder and encourage the corporate bureaucracy.
Good planning includes anticipating the topics to be discussed at least 72 hours in advance, incorporating the suggestions of those who participate and assigning time to each topic according to relevance and strategic objectives, and designating a coordinator to keep the times and direct the meeting, These are methodologies that continue to be effective both in the face-to-face and virtual models.
I suggest keeping the order of topics in view (for example, on a blackboard in full view of everyone, or in a digital document), and following the schedule meticulously. This means starting and finishing on time, which will help not to overwhelm everyone’s schedules.
And, very relevant: silenced cell phones.
2) Start with 5 minute check-in
This is a technique that we use in the world of professional executive coaching, and it allows us to gauge how the team arrives at the meeting. In addition, it is the time to disperse everyday topics, so fond of sneaking into a work meeting.
I recommend that this space be enabled for the download and comments of each one, and that later, formally, begin the treatment of the topics.
It will not go on to the next topic if the decisions on the previous one have not been made, and they were conveniently recorded in a reliable way, so that everyone receives that summary of decisions, those responsible and execution times and accountability as soon as the meeting ends.
3) The phrase that exterminates eternal explanations
One of the huge problems for which time is wasted in meetings is the lack of economy of words. People want to show off, explain, give a lecture, and for this reason they take as their own “the stage” of the meeting to perform before others.
This is a very frequent mistake, which only a few high-performance professionals know how to handle very well: direct, short and to the point. Without anesthesia, as we usually say.
The recommendation is that, whenever someone goes too long regarding something and goes off on a limb, the moderator kindly says the phrase: “And the point is…?”
Kindly agreeing to the use of this hose, whoever exceeded it will take a quick conscience and go directly to the point of the matter.
And following that? At the end, you can do a checkout, a few minutes to review the agreements, managers and execution times; and what is valuable to each person from that meeting.
I assure you that hundreds of hours wasted in unproductive meetings (with a lot of money involved) will be saved if you implement these three practical tips today. Try them and measure the results.
Facilitator and Executive Master Coach specialized in senior management, professionals and teams; mentor and professional communicator; international speaker; author of 32 books. LinkedIn Top Voice Latin America. Professional Coach certified by ICF at its highest level, Certified Coach, Member and Mentor in Maxwell Leadership, John Maxwell’s team.
Source: Scope
