Death by meeting and how to avoid it

Ineffective meetings are the bane of all organisations. Meetings have been described by the cynical as “a practical alternative to work”. In one sequence of the political drama The West Wing, the White House Deputy is outlining the faults of an ineffective operator, one of which is “he thinks decisions are made in meetings”.

Like most technological innovations, video calls using Teams, Zoom etc. don’t solve this fundamental problem, in fact they make it worse as has been illustrated in various hilarious ways by the brilliant Sanjeev NC.

Common meeting challenges

Lack of Clear Purpose: Meetings without a clear purpose or agenda often lead to confusion and disengagement among participants. Without a defined objective, attendees may struggle to stay focused or understand why their presence is necessary.

Poor Planning and Preparation: Meetings that are not adequately planned or prepared tend to be disorganised and unproductive. Poor preparation includes not setting an agenda, not inviting the right participants, or not providing necessary background information in advance.

Inefficient Time Management: Meetings that run over their allotted time or lack effective time management can frustrate participants and disrupt their schedules. Tangential discussions, repetitive conversations, or insufficient time allocated to agenda items can all contribute to time wastage.

Dominance of Certain Individuals: When certain individuals dominate discussions or monopolise airtime, it can stifle contributions from others and limit the diversity of perspectives. This can lead to disengagement among quieter team members and a lack of inclusivity.

Lack of Engagement and Participation: Meetings that fail to engage participants or encourage active participation often result in low morale and disinterest. This can occur due to monotonous formats, uninspiring content, or a lack of opportunities for interaction and contribution.

Absence of Follow-Up and Accountability: Meetings that conclude without clear action items, follow-up mechanisms, or accountability measures risk rendering discussions meaningless. Without concrete next steps or timelines for implementation, decisions made during meetings may never be executed.

Overemphasis on Status Updates: Meetings that focus excessively on providing status updates or sharing routine information can be unproductive and demotivating. While updates are necessary in some contexts, they should not dominate the entire meeting at the expense of more strategic or collaborative discussions.

Failure to Address Conflict or Disagreement: Meetings that shy away from addressing conflict or disagreement directly may avoid difficult conversations in the short term but risk allowing underlying issues to fester and escalate over time. Constructive conflict can lead to better decision-making and innovation if managed effectively.

Lack of Documentation and Communication: Meetings that lack clear documentation of decisions, action items, and next steps may result in misunderstandings or misalignment after the meeting concludes. It's essential to document meeting outcomes and communicate them effectively to all relevant stakeholders.

Why it’s important

Successful entrepreneurs from Henry Ford to Eric Ries have identified the essential value of time in all businesses. Peter Drucker wrote “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed”. While true in any business wasting time in a business such as CIO Studio that is extracting value directly from time spent by highly skilled operatives is literally throwing money away unnecessarily. Furthermore, time-wasting in all its forms is a source of immense frustration especially in those whose time is being wasted. Nobody minds us taking up their time as long as we use it productively.

Many of the concepts discussed in this section can be applied generically to all forms of meetings, both externally with clients and internally. Not wasting the time of our clients and prospects is a key objective during the business development process of course, but it is also true that we can be more productive internally using the same techniques. If nothing else we will get practice internally, which can be applied to external meetings.

Meeting as a productive process

It’s useful to think of a meeting as a machine which produces a desirable outcome. Different types of outcomes need different machinery, but the principle is the same.

Some examples of useful outcomes which can be obtained from meetings are:

Getting agreement from a customer to
- discuss their requirements
- send a proposal
- buy the proposed deal
- agree to their work being used in a case study
Collecting requirements
- from one person
- from many at a time
Consensus on something that affects all participants
- Agreement on a strategy
- Input for a client proposal
- How to deal with a difficult problem
Training in a particular technique
Accountability for progress against a plan
Peer review and contribution towards important

This list is not exhaustive, and it should be noted that many of these outcomes can often be achieved without holding a meeting. Ask yourself the question “could this meeting be an email?”

Delivery of the desired outcome is achieved by the meeting following a clearly defined path, which must be set by the agenda. Most agenda will vary in some way but in overview the meeting process should consist of:

Preparation (beforehand)
Opening
Details
Summary
Close and actions

Types of meetings

Again, the following is not exhaustive, but shows that not all meetings are of the same type.

Standup Meetings: Short, daily meetings where team members provide updates on their progress, discuss any blockers, and align on priorities. Standup meetings keep teams informed, promote accountability, and maintain momentum.

Workshops: Collaborative sessions aimed at problem-solving, brainstorming, or decision-making. Workshops encourage creativity, foster teamwork, and generate actionable outcomes.

Governance and Management Meetings: Strategic gatherings involving key stakeholders to review performance, make high-level decisions, and provide guidance. Board and management meetings ensure alignment with organisational goals and facilitate strategic planning.

Accountability Meetings: Periodic meetings focused on reviewing progress towards goals, identifying challenges, and establishing action plans. Accountability meetings promote transparency, hold team members accountable, and drive results.

Maximising meeting effectiveness

The fastest way to get something off our to-do list is to say something like “let’s have a meeting about this tomorrow”. Without further effort that merely creates the illusion of progress while actually procrastinating.

However, if we say “I will document my thoughts on this issue by close tomorrow and send to you for consideration, then we can decide if we need to discuss more” is the protagonist taking responsibility to move the issues forward themselves, put a timeframe around it and suggest the following step, which is much more useful.

Pre-requisites

Meeting Organiser: One person who takes responsibility for organising the meeting and ensuring the pre-requisites are met. In most cases this person will lead or chair the meeting.

Clear Topic and Agenda: Define the purpose and scope of the meeting, outline the agenda, and communicate expectations to participants in advance.

Background Reading: Provide relevant background materials focused on the meeting topic to ensure that participants are well-informed and prepared to contribute.

Pre-Prepared Material: Encourage presenters or discussion leaders to prepare materials such as slides, reports, or data analyses to facilitate productive discussions and decision-making during the meeting.

Clearly defined Roles

People coming together does not make an effective meeting unless roles are clearly defined.

Chairperson/Meeting Leader: Facilitates the meeting, holds to the agenda, and ensures that discussions stay on track steer to the desired outcome.

Timekeeper: Monitors time allocations for agenda items and signals when it's time to move on to the next topic. Sometimes the chair can take on this role, but this is usually not as effective as having a separate person take this role.

Scribe: Records meeting minutes, action items, and key decisions, ensuring that important information is documented and shared with attendees. The role of scribe is an onerous one which can be greatly assisted by good use of AI tools.

Participants: Actively engage in discussions, contribute insights, and collaborate towards achieving meeting objectives.

After the meeting

Often the value of a meeting is dissipated by poor after-meeting follow-up. If actions are decisions are not properly documented there is a risk that all or part of the meeting will be repeated, individuals will be unclear of what they are expected to do and/or will forget the commitment that they made.

Clear documentation immediately after the meeting or as soon thereafter as possible is crucial, as is the use of appropriate tools to capture actions and ensure they are followed up.

The documentation is the responsibility of the Scribe, making sure that it happens is the responsibility of the Meeting Leader or Chair.

CIO Studio approach

The following steps are proposed.

For internal meetings:

Development of a learning module based on the material in this paper
Delivery of the learning module to existing team
Learning forms part of induction of new people
Systems are built to reinforce/remind
Use of AI to enhance and accelerate these processes

For external meetings:

Meeting records are always kept and published for all team members to see
All meetings aimed at business development must have a clearly defined advance
Data will be captured on meetings and advances as a KRA for business development
All team members will be accountable for recording their meetings
Meetings for which there is no record will be deemed to have not happened