The Essential Question for Productive Meetings
I’ve been in too many meetings of late where very little was accomplished. We talked and talked and talked, but almost nothing got done. Discussion meetings are fine and sometimes quite important, but none of these meetings were billed as “discussion only.” I came assuming we had work to get done. The strange, and rather disheartening, thing about it has been that few of the others in attendance seemed to mind. Don’t get me wrong – they didn’t enjoy the meeting; rather, it’s as if they’ve just gotten used to holding meetings for the sake of meeting and no longer expect to get much done.
Over time, I suspect, this only re-enforces a culture of do-nothing meetings that discourages attendance, participation, and ownership of the shared work. So other than boycott these meetings – which is, I’ll admit, a tempting and at times needful option – what can we do?
I’d argue that we need to ask one essential question at the start of every meeting: What do we want to get done? Perhaps we can intensify it. What do we need to get done? What have we gathered to do? What will we not leave until we get done?
Sound simple? It absolutely is, but sometimes some of the most essential leadership tools are. Once that question has been asked, you see, you’ve named a shared priority and commitment, and that helps you keep the meeting on track. When the discussion begins to veer, you – whether as the stated leader or a participant (who is invested in having your time used well) – can politely ask, “Does this discussion bear on the work we have agreed we must get done (or decision we must make), or can we talk about this after the meeting?” When folks ask for additional information (the unconscious stalling pattern of numerous folks engrained into a do-nothing meeting culture), you can ask, again ever so politely, “Is this information essential to getting our work done or is it something we can consider afterward?” Nine times out of ten, the information is useful but not essential. The one out of ten times it is essential, a good follow-up question is, “What can we get done today to prepare to receive and act on this information quickly?”
If you are running the meeting, it may help to write the “must get done” items at the top of the agenda. Name them “outcomes” or “essential outcomes” or even “must get done today,” but name them.
Over time, people will get used to – and enjoy – the sense of purposeful accomplishment that comes with actually getting work done at meetings. But it will take time. One way to move the folks you meet with – whether at work, or a volunteer group, or your congregation – from a “discussion culture” to an “execution culture” is to ask a another question at the end of each meeting: “What did we actually get done today.” If there is no ready answer, the resultant productive embarrassment will provide the impetus to do more at the next meeting. As the clarity and quantity of what has actually gotten done at meetings increases, people will not only come to meetings better prepared to accomplish things but look forward to them as well.
Hi David,
Thanks for this. I find this a common issue in a lot of settings. It sounds to me like there may need to be a stronger sense of leadership and structure to the meetings. In my experience in both church and non-profit board meetings, it can be helpful to organize a meeting into two BIG categories: past and future. At the start, get everyone up to speed on past events (I.e. committee reports, current climate) then shifting conversation into strategic discussion (I.e. future hopes and plans). While the strategic discussion may not necessarily end in a clear, quantifiable plan each time, having a particular focus (such as the future) can keep the conversation more coordinated.
…This sounds painfully obvious as I get it down in writing. But sometimes a basic structure such as this can make a big difference.
Great advice, Susan. Thanks for writing.
I have attended worship services which would benefit from similar questions. But meetings are the ways committees operate, though committees are known as groups that take minutes and waste hours.
“Meetings are indispensible when you don’t want to do anything.” John Kenneth Galbraith
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” Thomas Sowell
“Meetings move at the speed of the slowest mind in the room.” Dale Dauton
“The world is run by those willing to sit until the end of meetings.” Hugh Park
And from Herbert Hoover: ” “When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it’s been a lousy meeting.”
See http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelpeterson/2012/12/11/miserable-meetings-no-more/
🙂
Very appropriate for decision-makers. The problem in Washington, though, is every time anybody gets together across party, department, committee, or government branch lines to accomplish something, they have to end the meeting and go check out where they stand on it with their colleagues, caucuses, lobbyists, and financial supporters, to say nothing of their economic and political advisers.
Hi David, Good thoughts! Making decisions requires that the parties to them have trust in each other and especially with those doing the advocating. Consequently most meetings should be filled with trust building activities, so that when a decision has to be made it can be made with little angst. Trust building activities are not a waste of time.
I thought this was a very helpful article, and you equipped readers with a couple of helpful touchstones regarding productive meetings. These will be good tools as I think about making meetings more productive. As a pastor who longs to make spiritual discernment and more-than-perfunctory tending to God a part of our decision-making process — who gets pushback from folks who don’t believe that spending time in bible study or conversation is worthwhile in a business (congregation council) meeting — I’d appreciate some conversation regarding balancing that with a move towards accomplishment. My experience has included plenty of time-wasting and non-productivity, but I’ve also noticed that some of our worst decisions have been those made hastily, without time to reflect or discern. Sometimes it’s hard to sort thru which issues are ones that need such time, and which we need to make sure we’re not unnecessarily delaying on. I appreciated the comments by JohnV above — he’s talking about trust-building and relationship-building; both of which are by-products of a solid tending to God (trust and relationship both with God AND with one another).
I’ve tried from time to time to encourage productivity or focus at meetings by asking, “what does God need us to get done at this meeting?” But that seems to be overwhelming to folks and is met with silence and passive techniques to avoid commitment to a course of action. Still, that really is what I believe makes a good meeting.
read a great book on meetings recently at the suggestion of a trusted friend called “Read This Before Our Next Meeting.” Great little book. Quick read. Very insightful.
I second the recommendation: “Read this before our next meeting.” Very helpful – and while some of it doesn’t transfer well from the business context to the church, MUCH of it would serve us well!