Productive Meetings

Most of us spend a lot of time in meetings. I believe meetings are important since the quality of the interaction is very different from phone/email/twitter etc. However, I have started to realize that time can go by very quickly in meetings and at the end of the day no time was left for thinking, reading, and writing. Here are some things that I have found help to make meetings productive:

• Spend the first few minutes on setting the agenda (with focus on what the goal of the meeting is). This is obvious but important. then follow the agenda. Extra gold star for the people who bring a print out of the agenda, makes it easier to follow when printed on a piece of paper!
• Taking notes! I have yet to experience a meeting where nobody took notes/minutes and the meeting was worth anybody's time. Designate a scribe! Review the notes at the next meeting. Have people sign the minutes! This all raises the stakes and emphasizes the importance of what is discussed in the meeting.
• Find a good place to meet. I will no longer hold meetings in rooms without windows... Meeting participants need to be comfortable to give their best. Offer water or coffee!
• Start on time and finish on time. This one that I find very challenging - I greatly enjoy working with my team and collaborators and it is hard to cut off conversations despite this is needed.
• Fight the urge to make every meeting an hour long! Most meetings can be done in 30 minutes and, yes, some of them require 2 hours.
• Shake hands! This may be cultural (and relate to my European roots) but I really appreciate to wrap up the meeting with a clear sign of agreement and drive to action - the hand shake!
• Say no to meetings in which your attendance is not absolutely crucial.
• Surprise people - if nothing surprising happens at a meeting it was too much routine and thereby did not really require a meeting.
• Replace in person meetings with asynchronous conversations using tools such as Basecamp.
• Never have a discussion/"meeting" by email - too stressful, too hard to follow.

I hope that some of these ideas make you less "busy all the time" and thus more productive!

Take care,

Flavio