Methods, Not Methodology (4): Effective Meetings

The Problems

Two problems:

• Even there're already tons of articles and books talking about the meeting efficiency and effectiveness, but "too many meetings", "meeting takes too long" are still the most popular items in retrospective meetings.
• People complained the meeting efficiency but did nothing to change it, especially never changed the behavior of themselves.

What can we do to improve it?

The General Reasons

• Well, the first problem (too many meetings) is actually not a meeting problem. It's a problem related to team maturity.
• The second problem(People keen to blame others but never change themselves) is also a problem has nothing about meeting.
• Lack of awareness of effective rules is always a reason candidate.

The Observed New Reasons

I won't repeat well known reasons here. I just share something new based on my observation. "new" is not really new. It means something people keen to ignore even they know it, whatever consciously or subconsciously. Here they are:

• Lack of attention to the purpose of holding a meeting
• Lack of attention to the purpose of a specific meeting
• Emphasizing the function/skills of facilitator removes some obligation from individual attendees.

Also I noticed the existing guidelines are usually verbose. There could be a short checklist to reminder people some principles, bad smells and good practices. At the end I will try to provide one.

The Purpose of Holding a Meeting

When should we call for a meeting? When there's some discussion (bidirectional communication) needed. It means:

• Don't hold a meeting when you just want to announce something
• Don't hold a meeting when you just want some kinds of report
• Don't attend a meeting if you don't want to say something
• Don't attend a meeting if you don't need to say something. Do something else valuable.

The purpose also defines attendees:

• Don't gather people together if you just want to talk to them one by one, or one group by one group

The Purpose of a Specific Meeting

You can discuss a single fact/idea from infinite perspectives, but only few of them are related to current purpose. Just visualize / highlight / emphasize the purpose of this meeting at any time you think it's wandering off the topic.

Individual Responsibility

We emphasized the facilitating skills too much. It gives an illusion that it's the facilitator's responsibility to make the meeting efficient and effective. It's true, but it doesn't mean the individual attendees do not need to do anything. On the contrary, attendee's behavior is more important than the facilitator's skill in terms of the efficiency and effectiveness. For example, when attending a meeting, ensure yourself:

• Follow the rules and practices
• Help to maintain the rules and practices
• Be prepared
• Raise your concern, contribute your thought
• Don’t interrupt others, give others opportunity to interrupt you
• …

A Pocket Guide for Efficient and Effective Meeting

One Page Common Sense

• Agenda
• Ground Rules
• Be Prepared
• Focused
• Robert’s Rules of Order

Bad Smells

• Dominating individuals : Control them
• Silent individuals : Ask them
• Silent groups : Separate meeting
• Premature voting : Discuss and share understanding first

Practices

• General ground rules
  • on time
  • one conversation
  • no phone ring
• Speak in turn
• Yellow card and red card : warning the speaker in a polite and visual way
• Time-boxed for non-essential topic.
• Summarize
• Parking lot : put extend topic there, keep track on the main topic
• Define the scope

Individual Responsibilities (Repeated):

• Follow the rules and practices
• Help to maintain the rules and practices
• Be prepared
• Raise your concern, contribute your thought
• Don’t interrupt others, give others opportunity to interrupt you

Validated Meeting

• Make sure everyone leaves knowing the next step, and the reason.

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Other blogs of the Methods, Not Methodology series:

• Methods, Not Methodology (I): Validated Code Review
• Methods, Not Methodology (2): Effective and Validated 5 Whys
• Methods, Not Methodology (3): Knowing Everything at the Beginning?