How to Run Lousy Meetings
71% of the executives surveyed say meetings are unproductive and inefficient. (HBR)*
Responsibility for great meetings always lies with the person who calls them.
Running lousy meetings comes naturally. Great meetings require preparation. If you just show up, yours probably suck.
10 Ways to Run Lousy Meetings
#1. Fill PowerPoint slides with words. Bonus points for reading them word-for-word.
#2. Ask for feedback, then correct the one who speaks first. Say, “Let’s make this a safe space,” and casually mention performance reviews are next week.
#3. Call on people like it’s a middle school math class. Bonus points if you interrupt when someone jumps in.
#4. Schedule 90 minutes and go two hours.
#5. Invite new ideas, then explain why they won’t work.
#6. Bring an agenda with 17 items. Make item one “Review Q1 budget line-by-line.” (That’s a hostage negotiation, not an agenda.)
#7. Suck 80% of the air out of the room with your stories about how you did it back in ’09.
#8. Invite people who are irrelevant to the agenda.
#9. Avoid decisions.
#10. End the meeting with: “Let me think about it and get back to you.” Never follow up.
5 Action Steps That Fix Lousy Meetings:
- Stop talking so others can speak.
- Explore how new ideas might work.
- Cut your agenda in half. Bonus points for only doing things that require everyone in the room.
- Prep people to participate. Ask them to prepare to speak to a specific agenda item the day before the meeting.
- Encourage people to talk with each other, not to you.
Lousy meetings make people wish they had a root canal scheduled.
Get serious about great meetings: 10 Commandments that Fix Lousy Meetings
What’s one thing that would improve your meetings?
*Stop the Meeting Madness (HBR)
Have a special affinity for the around the table staff meeting. Pushes people to drone on and on about how they’re the busiest person in the company.
Thanks Mike. Meetings would be shorter if we worried less about making ourselves look important.
I’ve definitely seen the most impact and operational advancement when the meetings have had a clear agenda and open-ended questions are used to drive conversation forward.
It sure helps to aim at something! Thanks, Brad.
Allow interruptions, talking over people and topic high jacking.
Rudeness is a powerful culture builder!! Cheers, Tonya.
Remove all of the chairs in the room.
It helps to think about how much each meeting costs (number of attendees and their hourly rate can be an eye-opening exercise for many leaders and managers).