According to a recent study by IFOP, the number of meetings attended by executives has doubled, passing from an average of three per week in 2015, to six in big companies.
More meetings, however, do not necessarily lead to increased productivity. In fact, meetingitis, a phenomenon defined as an excessive tendency to hold unnecessary meetings, has intensified. As an article from The Economist points out, although employees today tend to work more, they do not necessarily work more efficiently.
As the number of work meetings increase, leveraging them for productivity has become particularly important. Timing, tools, dynamization…here are our 5 tips to optimize your meeting!
1. Prepare the meeting well in advance
The first thing to remember is that conducting a meeting, be it in person or virtually, cannot be improvised. Good preparation involves three steps:
Set the objective of the meeting: Is it to resolve a crisis? Plan the next steps of a project? Share information? Brainstorm ideas? It’s important to clearly define the objective of the meeting since this will determine what will be discussed and who will participate.
(Re)phrase the discussion topics as questions: Think critically about what you want to take away from the meeting; rather than create a longlist of topics to be addressed, present the latter as questions and therefore achievable goals.
Invite sparingly: By inviting too many people, you risk exceeding the time limit and losing the attention of team members who do not have anything relevant to contribute. Only those who will have an active role in the meeting should be present.
2. Keep meetings short and to the point
This may seem counterintuitive, but a meeting should be as short as possible; this way, you encourage participants to be focused and productive. A study carried out in 2018 by Barco and Circle Research suggests that a meeting should not last longer than…21 minutes! As a rule, try to cut the time you usually plan for by half: a coordination meeting, for example, should not exceed 30 minutes, and a brainstorming session, one hour.
3. Involve the team
A meeting is first and foremost an opportunity to communicate with your team. Ensure there is a real conversation by:
Avoiding presentations that are too long and/or detailed. If you are using a PowerPoint, do not overload your slides with too much text; keep it concise.
Respecting the five-minute rule: No one person should speak for more than five minutes before calling on another participant. This will foster active listening.
Asking questions, encouraging everyone to speak up about the topics being discussed.
4. End the meeting with an action plan
The end of your meeting should be dedicated to “next steps”. Every participant should leave the meeting with a clear understanding of what was discussed, the decisions that were made, as well as the assignments and tasks they are responsible for and their respective deadlines.
5. Leverage digital technologies and collaborative tools
We all know Zoom, Teams, Skype…, the now ubiquitous platforms used to facilitate remote meetings. But there is also a wide range of solutions that you can use to organize your meeting and make it more dynamic. Some of these integrate co-creation tools, quizzes, or team challenges to help facilitate meetings, while others aim to make the organizational stage more fluid. Fivedays is an example of the latter, and allows you to better prepare your meetings, share information and plan tasks.
Organizing virtual and in-person meetings can seem like a challenge, especially when team members feel you are requesting their time, rather than their actual participation. By following these 5 tips, you will gain in productivity and keep your team engaged!