How to start meetings on time
One of life’s greatest annoyances for me is the time spent waiting for a meeting to begin. The Berkun blog gives some great advice about how to get meetings off on a good foot by starting on time. What tips can you share with the group about how you get your meetings started on time?
If you called the meeting, do your %*?@?! job. Everyone claims they know about facilitation, but few do it. If you called the meeting, it’s your job to 1) get there on time 2) write a bullet list agenda on the wall 3) Manage the conversation so no one hogs the floor and the right people get a voice at the right time 4) make sure side issues get delegated out of the room. If you don’t do all 4, any meeting problems are your fault.
Meetings start when royalty arrives. Watch the behavior of the senior person on a team. Most meetings won’t start until they arrive and people know it. If the VP is never late, no one else will be either. If the VP is always 10 minutes behind, everyone else will follow. If you’re a team manager, and meetings always start late, know (and blame) thyself. If you need a VP/VIP know where they’ll be before your meeting and escort them yourself.
Someone must enforce the clock. Every meeting should start with someone assigned to watch the clock. I don’t know that you need a giant clock like Google is claimed to use, but it’s someones job to say “We’re 20 minutes in”, “we have 15 minutes left”, “we have 5 minutes, so lets wrap up”. You’d be amazed how many meetings ramble for half the allotted time on topics not central to the reason for the meeting. Three breakpoints are all you need to remind everyone to stay on track.
Plan to end 5 minutes early. It’s insane but in all our infinite wisdom we continually plan meetings back to back with zero alloted time to get from meeting A to meeting B. Whose idea was this? If you always go to the last second, or go over, guess what you’re doing? You’re screwing over the next batch of meetings people need to get to. You’ll make unexpected friends by always ending early, which is easy if you watch the clock.
How to start meetings on time (the honest version) - [Berkun Blog]
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Comments
tokyor says on March 10th, 2007 at 8:55 am
A great article!I also read a article “Nine Ways to Devastate Productivity” in http://www.mustsuccess.com/timemanagement4.html
RegAdkins says on March 10th, 2007 at 10:16 am
I rarely write disagreement comments on things I find on websites. For one reason, most folks have poured their heart and soul into what they have written and it is a little off putting when a “stranger” disagrees in front of God and everybody. Two, I feel like a bit of a jerk sounding off on someone else’s topic.
So, if I do disagree I try to state the why and suggest an alternative.
1. I speak and conduct meetings for a living and I completely agree with the premise if it’s your meeting it’s your responsibility, warts and all.
2. I disagree with your “royal arrival” theory. I often conduct meetings in which I am addressing people who supervise dozens (some hundreds) of people. If I waited for the royalty to arrive, considering the entrance making games some of these folks play, I would never get to my content. To address this I put so much into my meetings that missing any part of them is considered so great a loss, no one can afford to be late.
3. I believe it is always a good idea to solicit an assistant to track the time. I get so involved in my content, I rarely notice it. So, good point.
4. The only reason I ever end a meeting early is to give the participants time to complete the feedback form. I collect feedback forms from every meeting. This allows me to adjust the content and presentation method to the preferences of my group (I can provide a copy if you like).
I absolutely agree, failing to properly prepare for a meeting is a recipe for disaster.
Scott Carpenter says on March 11th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
A sure fire way to ensure meetings start on time is to just start the meeting on time.
If you do this consistently people will learn that there is no lee-way given - that you won’t be saying “oh we’ll just give it another 5 minutes to wait till everyone arrives”.
Of course this requires some flexibility in situations where the bulk of meeting attendees are late due to a circumstances beyond their control.