Ask These 9 Questions Before
Every Meeting To Avoid Wasting Time
A lot of meetings are pointless. But they don’t have to be.
Many activities suck up a lot of our time at
work. And no activity feels more like a time suck than pointless meetings.
Of course, not all meetings are a waste of
time. If done right, a meeting can solve problems or convey information without
an endless Slack thread. The key is preparation, and asking yourself the
right questions. Before you get your team together for another pointless
meeting, ask the following questions to ensure that it’ll be the most
productive use of everyone’s time.
1. DO I REALLY NEED TO HOLD THIS
MEETING?
This question might seem really obvious to
you, but some companies have regular check-ins without really thinking through
why. As Laura Vanderkamp wrote in a previous article for Fast Company, recurring meetings often serve
one purpose: “To make sure everyone is still doing her job.” But Vanderkamp
argues that this shouldn’t be necessary if you have a high-functioning team.
Not only are attendees missing out on valuable deep work time, Vanderkamp also
pointed out that when they get back to their desk, there’s the “transition
cycle” where workers check their emails and social media before diving into
their projects.
If it’s not just about checking in, go a step
further and ask yourself–what do you hope to get out of it? In a 2016 Fast Company story, Stephanie Vozza cited a Microsoft study that revealed most meetings
aren’t properly planned, and 67% are held without an agenda. You can’t make an
agenda if you don’t know what you want to achieve. And without an agenda, there
is a greater risk that your meetings will be wasted hours, Vozza wrote.
Let’s face it, as engaging as you might be as a
facilitator, people zone out in work meetings. And sometimes they don’t always take notes and
miss out on important information. You can prevent this from happening by
including a unique element. It doesn’t have to be major–employee engagement
software provider TINYpulse starts their staff meeting at 8.48 a.m., an odd but
memorable time. E-commerce company Etailz does a Q&A at the end of the
meeting, which turns into a stare off if no one says anything, as reported in a previous Fast Company story.
4. WHAT DO I NEED TO TELL
ATTENDEES AHEAD OF THE MEETING?
There’s nothing worse than having unprepared
attendees. But you can’t blame them for not having good ideas if you put them
on the spot and didn’t give them enough time to prepare. In a previous Fast Companyarticle, Stephanie Vozza listed out the categories that meetings tend to fall
under: information-share meetings, creative-discussions meetings, and consensus
meetings. For creative discussions and consensus meetings, the more you warn
participants about the issues or ideas you want to discuss, the better prepared
they’ll be. If they’re hearing about them for the first time in the meeting,
you’ll have to allocate extra time for clarifications.
5. WHO REALLY NEEDS TO BE AT THE
MEETING?
You know how annoying it is when your inbox
is clogged with emails you’ve unnecessarily been copied to? People also don’t
want to spend their days on meetings if that means not getting their actual
work done–or staying at the office later because of it. Jeff Bezos is famous
for his “two-pizzas” rule when it comes to meetings. That is, he limits the number of
attendees to the amount of people he can feed with two pizzas. As Lydia
Dishman previously reported, “Meetings with a large group tend to get bogged down. Smaller groups
are more efficient, especially when the right decision maker is sitting at the
table.”
6.HOW CAN I TURN THE AGENDA
ITEMS INTO ACTIONS?
Of course, meetings are for discussion, but
if all you have in your “agenda” is “discuss x, y, z,” you might end the
meeting and realize that no one knows what they should do next. In a previous article for Fast
Company, author of Smart Leaders, Smarter
Teams Roger M. Schwarz suggested turning items into questions. For
example, instead of “discuss video schedule,” write “when will videos be
completed?” This way, you’ll leave the meeting with clear next steps.
7. HOW CAN I MAKE SURE THAT
EVERYONE IS INCLUDED?
If your meetings are dominated by one or two
voices (and there are more attendees), that’s a drain on your
productivity. After all, the whole point of meeting is to exchange ideas and
thoughts. As Aleah Warren previously wrote for Fast
Company, if organizations don’t ensure they include
everyone, they’re missing out on diverse perspectives that could be extremely
valuable to the team.
8. WHO IS THE BEST PERSON
TO SPEAK ON EACH AGENDA ITEM?
Being useful in meetings doesn’t always mean
knowing everything. In a previous article for Fast
Company, copywriter and comedian Thom Crowley
realized that being useful is about identifying what you don’tknow,
and who is the best person to speak about that topic. He
wrote, “Pretending to know a bunch of stuff I don’t know, or half-know, or
think I might know takes up a good bit of brain space that I
could otherwise use to apply the knowledge I already have to contribute
something worthwhile.” Even if your made-up answer sounds impressive, it’s not
going to help your team down the line when they realized that your answer did
nothing to help their project whatsoever.
9. HOW CAN I ENSURE THAT THIS
MEETING IS THE BEST USE OF EVERYONE’S TIME?
Meetings have opportunity costs. And too many
nonessential ones drain a company’s progress and productivity. Ultimately, the
key question is understanding whether it’s the best use of everyone’s limited
time. As Shivani Siroya, CEO of fintech startup Tala, previously told Fast Company, “Walking into any meeting, it’s important to remember that everyone in
the room is sacrificing part of his or her day to be there. And when you
treat people’s time with the reverence it deserves, suddenly, meetings become a
force for good in your day, rather than the thing you had to
do.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/40482980/ask-these-9-questions-before-every-meeting-to-avoid-wasting-time?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fast%20Company%20Daily&position=9&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=10262017
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