15 Sins of Ineffective Meetings

Meetings are a common form of communication at work and one that can often feel like time wasted vs time valued. Both the meeting organizer and attendees are responsible for an effective meeting. You may read these tips and find that as a meeting participant, you can help to turn some of your meetings around. 15 Sins of Ineffective Meetings is the topic of this week's Ezine issue. You will either want to avoid these sins or use them as a checkpoint for increasing the effectiveness of meetings in your workplace.

1. Coordinator Overload: At times, the meeting coordinator runs the meeting by fulfilling all roles. By that I mean they set the agenda, guide or manage discussion, take notes, watch the clock to keep things on track, and take on most action items. Sharing some of these responsibilities with meeting participants makes for a smoother meeting flow.

2. No Clear Purpose: What is the agenda? Send the meeting agenda out to the attendees before the meeting so that they know why they are showing up. If there is no specific agenda, it's probably time to cancel, or maybe try rescheduling to every other week or monthly vs weekly. Don't be afraid to cancel a meeting if there is no agenda. Send an email out saying "Meeting Cancelled, No agenda items this week." Trust me, attendees will secretly be rejoicing in their offices celebrating a free hour in their work week. :-)

3. Intended Outcome Unclear: Even if there are agenda items spelled out, it may be unclear what is supposed to happen with each topic. Is it an FYI, a discussion item, a brainstorming item, a decision being rolled out, a request for follow up, status updates, a feedback session? Work with the meeting organizer and suggest that they label things clearly so that attendees know what level of discussions is expected for each. For example: "New Building FYI" or "Project Brainstorming", etc. The intended outcome should be crystal clear to all participants.

4. Un-Timed Agenda Topics: So you have a clear agenda. Excellent! Now it's time to decide how much time to allot for each topic. Without a specific length of time attached to each item, you are sure to run out of time or spend too much time on one thing. Also, if someone asks to add an agenda item, ask them how much time they would need for that. List agenda items with their allotted time. For example, New Building FYI (5 mins). Appoint someone as the time-keeper and they can interject when time is running out on a topic. The attendees can then decide if to continue talking at the expense of not getting to other topics, take it off line, or pick up the discussion next time around.

5. Punishing the Prompt: If you have a meeting where people typically show up late, simply start on time. Don't punish the prompt attendees. The late-comers will get the message when the meeting consistently gets started without them. Hopefully the latecomer isn't the meeting organizer. ;-)

6. Decision-Maker Unclear: People tend to talk in circles and try to trump each other's ideas when it is not clear who the decision maker is. Suggest that the organizer state that up front. For example, "For item #2 on our agenda, the decision maker is Tom and I'll take the outcome of or discussion to him." And when there has been enough discussion you can close with something like "OK, I believe we have all of the ideas and suggestions on that one and I'll get that to Tom so he can make a decision on it."

7. Participants do not know their roles: Are participants people you will negotiate with, people you will consult with, or people that you're simply informing? Let participants know their role. For example, "Just an FYI before we get started. For the purpose of this meeting, as attendees you will be in the role of consultants to the outcome of this particular decision. The decision maker will be the Sales management team, and I will take your feedback to them for follow up." While this may not be necessary for all agenda items, it may be quite beneficial to some.

8. Not the Right Group: Take stock of the people attending the meeting and ask yourself what they are contributing to the meeting, and better yet, what value do you expect them to contribute to the meeting. If you come up short on the answer to that question, you may not have the right group of attendees. You can restructure the meeting by thanking those you will un-invite. Thank them for all of their contributions, let them know the focus of the meeting has been reassessed, and the reason you are selecting a different group of attendees.

9. Dominant Participants: These are people who consistently dominate the meeting discussion to the exclusion of others. Try something like "John, you've shared quite a few of your perspectives today and thanks for that. I'd like to give others a chance to share their thoughts as well. Susie, we haven't heard from you on this, what are your thoughts on this?" Or take John aside and say something like "John you typically have quite a bit to share at our meetings and I really appreciate your participation and how engaged you are in our discussions. I'm a bit concerned though that other people don't get an opportunity to chime in with their own thoughts on things. I'd like to give others more of an opportunity to do that next time."

10. Unclaimed Action Items: If you frequently have action items as a result of a meeting, specifically ask for volunteers or assign action items to specific individuals before the meeting ends. Do not let action items float around without an owner. The minute they come up, get consistent with asking who will take that one.

11. No due date for action items: Meetings can be a continuous regurgitation of previously discussed issues because the actions remain perpetually incomplete. When your action items are claimed, also ask "Cindy, what due date should I note for completion of that one?" And don't stop there, keep a running list of action items. Create a standing agenda item called "Status of Open Action Items." That's where you put all action items. That's a sure way to encourage accountability and make sure that those actions are moving forward.

12. No Note-Taking or Secret Notes: The meeting facilitator probably shouldn't be the one taking notes. They are typically facilitating the meeting discussion. Appoint a note-taker at your meetings to ensure that key things are not missed. It doesn't have to be an essay. Just brief notes in bulleted summarized format to highlight key points. The best thing you can do is have the notes visible via a flip chart or overhead for everyone to see-the benefit is that you avoid people repeating things because they're afraid they were not heard or that it was not captured and this wastes precious meeting time.

13. Abrupt endings: Lots of chatter happened in the meeting, ideas were discussed, decisions were made, and one quick look at the clock causes everyone to gather their PDAs and notebooks and head for the door. Always leave 5 minutes at the end of every meeting for "Wrap-Up & Action Items." Make that the last agenda item of all meetings. The note-taker can say something like "So the action items we have from today's meeting are.." And state the owners of those actions too.

14. No Summary: I shared above that it is valuable to take notes on a flip chart or overhead using a computer. For some meetings where a lot was discussed, it may be beneficial to send out a meeting summary with the action items, the owners for those action items, when those action items are due and a summary of discussions using the same agenda you shared for the meeting. Or, perhaps keep the meeting notes in a central location that everyone can access electronically and you can simply refer to that location in a brief email. That location would be a great place to send those who missed the meeting.

15. Meeting Stagnation: Let's face it, meetings stagnate from time to time. You fall into a rut of getting together, but the value diminishes over time. Shake things up by suggesting that the group hold a "Retrospective." Instead of the regular meeting, have attendees to show up to talk about the plusses and negatives regarding that particular meeting along with suggestions for change. Trust me, there would not be any shortage of feedback, so be ready to take lots of notes and, be clear about the action items.

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Allison Babb is author, speaker, trainer, and leadership coach who teaches leaders at all levels 3 secrets to becoming a top manager in their company. Allison has combined her degree in Business Administration, over 15 years of senior management experience and the art of professional coaching to deliver truly masterful leadership coaching and training to managers at all levels.

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