Stretching Your Time
Meetings waste a lot more time and energy than they should. Here are four simple and not so simple ground rules that can help stretch the time so that a little time goes a long way.
1. PRE-PLAN EVERY MEETING
Your biggest meeting time-saver will be the time you spend planning. Before the meeting is called, take a few minutes to respond to the following questions:
a. What is the purpose of the meeting? (Agenda)
b. What do you hope to accomplish at this meeting? (Relative to each item on the agenda)
c. How much time do you think this meeting will take? (Give an estimate for each item on the agenda)
d. Who should attend the meeting to make it most effective?
A typical response to these four questions, submitted by a firm’s director of facilities, might read: a.) “We need to discuss mobile telephones for our sales staff; b.) We need to decide on whether to provide in-car telephones or the type of telephone that can be easily removed from the car and taken along to meetings, etc.; c.) Fifteen minutes; d.) The Controller, Sales Manager, the General Manager, and the Director of Facilities will attend.”
Many executives have found it useful to use a pre-printed form incorporating these four questions. In addition to these four questions, the form should have space for the date and location of the meeting. When someone requests that a meeting be held they are instructed to first complete the form and then send a copy of the completed form to all meeting attendees, prior to the meeting.
These four questions are designed to both increase the quality of the meeting and to reduce the time needed to conduct it. Let us examine each question more carefully.
Purpose of Meeting?
Most people mistakenly assume that people who attend meetings know how to behave appropriately. Research has shown this to be a false assumption. Most people do not know how to avoid engaging in behavior that may cause a meeting to get off track. However, when the purpose of a meeting is clear, people can be expected to stay on track, with only an occasional reminder needed, should they stray from the topic at hand.
If you consider all the various types of meetings in which you typically spend your time, you will discover that there are just five purposes for these meetings:
1. To brainstorm.
2. To make a decision.
3. To share information.
4. To train and instruct.
5. To pass the time.
It is unlikely that most executives would think of calling a meeting for the purpose of “passing the time.” However, when meetings are poorly planned, or not planned at all, this is often the result achieved. Consider for instance, the no-win conflict generated when a group attempts to engage in problem solving or decision making on an issue the leader merely intended to present as information. To avoid conflict, the purpose of each item on the agenda must be stated. Why is the item there? What is the group expected to do with it? Is it open for discussion or is it for information only?
During the meeting itself, if a member does get off track and begins to discuss items not on the agenda, he/she can be reminded of the purpose for the meeting. For example, if the meeting is held to discuss mobile telephones, it would be inappropriate for a member to take time to talk about some other problem in his/her department unrelated to the telephone issue.
What Should the Meeting Accomplish?
This question forces the individual to think about the meeting in terms of results, or objectives. It is advantageous to require a person to think about what they want to accomplish prior to holding a meeting since this will cause them to focus on what they really want to achieve. If all attendees are aware of the proposed objectives, research has shown that they come to the meeting better prepared to achieve the intended results. It becomes apparent that in order to accomplish the objective, the individual will need to bring certain information to the meeting or receive input or clearance from someone who may not be attending. In either case, the group’s time will be saved by having the necessary information or action prior to the group coming together.
How Much Time Will Be Required?
The time estimate establishes a target that is usually absent from meetings. Most people estimate on the low side. When our Director of Facilities estimated 15 minutes, she was thinking, “We have all the comparative data on this matter and have discussed it before, so it really shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.” These estimates tend to be self-fulfilling prophesies since the estimator wants his/her estimate to be correct.
Who Should Attend The Meeting?
The utility of having a list of appropriate attendees is obvious, yet often this is not thoroughly considered when a topic is raised. Additionally, at times a topic is brought up as a kind of “piggyback” to a meeting about another issue. For example, at the end of a meeting on sales quotas, the Director of Facilities remembers that she needs a decision on mobile telephones. Turning to the General Manager, she says, “Incidentally, here are my thoughts on that mobile phone issue.” Thus the group may find itself discussing a matter that concerns individuals who aren’t present – but should be. Even if a decision is made, another meeting will be needed to get input/concurrence from others who are not present at this meeting. Time will be saved by tabling the discussion until all involved parties can be present at the same meeting. A better approach would have been for the Director of Facilities to have thought more carefully about the purpose of the meeting and to have included the telephone issue on the agenda in the first place. In that event the appropriate parties will be invited to attend so a decision can be taken.
2. START EACH MEETING BY MAKING CLEAR WHO IS DOING WHAT FOR WHOM
Three roles or functions will influence the actions of meeting attendees. At the start of a meeting, or the introduction of a new agenda item, the individuals fulfilling each of these roles should be clearly identified. Clarity on the roles, as described below, will avoid time-wasting confusion about who is responsible for what.
The Role of Implementor
The first role is that of the Implementor. This is the member of the group who has the main ownership of the topic or problem. For example, if the group is working on a manufacturing problem, the representative of manufacturing will be the Implementor since he/she will be expected to take the ideas, decisions, and directions reached at meetings and carry them further. It is the Implementor’s job to tell the group what he/she wants or needs and to evaluate the ideas and proposals received from the other members.
In most situations, there will be others in the meeting who share some responsibility for implementation. However, just as it is wise to delegate whenever possible, it is also wise to leave primary responsibility for implementation in the hands of the primary owner.
The Role of Enforcer
The second role, that of Enforcer, is filled by the usual chairperson. This individual is the traffic cop who sees that there is only one conversation at a time and that a group stays focused on the items listed in the agenda. Often it is helpful for the formal leader of a group to delegate the role of Enforcer to another individual, particularly when the formal leader is the Implementor for a particular topic. This allows the leader to concentrate on his/her Implementor role and let someone else worry about maintaining the guidelines or keeping the group on track.
The Role of Counselor
Finally, there is the role of Counselor who is there to help with ideas, to provide information and to support the Implementor.
There can, of course, be a lot of flexibility in the roles. For example, a single individual may be Enforcer, Counselor and Implementor for a given agenda item, although results are usually better when Implementor and Enforcer roles are split. The important thing is to be explicit about what role each individual represents for each item on the agenda.
3. LEARN HOW TO USE GOAL/WISHES
There is a disarmingly simple device called a goal/wish that can further reduce meeting time by keeping the parties focused on the issues without needless arguments, defensiveness and conflict.
A goal/wish is a way of phrasing an opinion, a negative reaction, a reservation, a difference of opinion, or an unreasonable desire in such a way that the group won’t be offended. Consider the following scenario: a group is pushing for a decision on whether to locate a plant in a town with a large, low-cost supply of unskilled labor, or in a city where the prices are higher and there is a skilled labor pool.
Director of Manufacturing (Implementor):
It will make my life simpler if we locate in the city where there is plenty of skilled help. Of course, the costs will be higher, but we’ll save on production start-up-time.
Director of Marketing (Counselor):
You’re just being penny-wise and pound foolish. We can train unskilled labor, and we’ll only have to do it once. But if you go for the higher labor costs, that will hurt our profits forever.
This type of exchange tends to shift energy from decision making to arguing. The Director of Manufacturing will consider such a response a personal attack. If both individuals had used the goal/wish concept, they would have said something like this:
Director of Manufacturing:
I have three goal/wishes about this situation:
1. I wish we could get skilled workers in the low-cost area,
2. I wish we could get into production on schedule without skilled workers,
3. and I wish we could get low-cost skilled workers in the city.
Director of Marketing:
I have a couple of goal/wishes:
1. I wish we could design a one-shot training program to bring unskilled, low cost labor up to speed in time to meet your production schedule,
2. and I wish we could have the benefit of skilled workers without hurting our profits over the long term.
This second exchange solicits the same information that the first one did but in a way that makes it clear both parties are on the same team. Essentially, a goal/wish allows the speaker to express speculative thoughts without having to defend them or censor someone else’s statement.
4. PRACTICE THE PRINCIPLE OF FAIR HEARING
The fourth ground rule simply calls for an open-minded evaluation or fair hearing of any idea put forth by members of a group. Much time and energy can be saved if you make it a rule in all meetings that everyone give a new idea or proposal a fair hearing by 1) listening, 2) stating or paraphrasing in your own words, what you understand the proposal to be, 3) repeating this until the proposer is satisfied that you grasp his/her meaning and finally, 4) pointing out the possible benefits you recognize that might come from the idea or proposal. Open-mindedness has now been demonstrated. Following this, you are free to discuss any concerns you may have regarding the idea or proposal. To be particularly effective, your concerns should take the form of goal/wishes. Meetings research has proven that people don’t mind having their ideas questioned if they are certain that the questioner understands the idea to begin with. What people do mind is having their ideas torn apart by someone who hasn’t even thought them through or given them a fair hearing.
The four ground rules presented here will help you to accomplish more in less time in meetings. They are the unwritten “rules of the road”. If everyone observes them, collisions and all of the accompanying trauma and waste can be avoided.
