Meetings can waste everyone's time without right techniques

Russell Bell PHOTO/FILE

There has been a lot of talk about meetings lately. They are a staple of modern business and not-for-profit organisations.

Meetings have long been utilised to get things done and can be a great mechanism for communication - with a view to spurring decisions and action.

Unfortunately, along the way, the humble meeting got hijacked by inefficiencies and ineffectiveness and became a "waste creator".

Why is this? If you are looking for the answer, your first port of call should be the imperfect vessels that are human beings.

Many times I have seen meetings disintegrate because participants get the "blah blahs" - where people do a lot of talking but say nothing. When I get caught in these situations it is as if the teacher from Peanuts (Charlie Brown) is speaking.

I have also been to meetings that were simply a vehicle for the creation and distribution of bovine scatology. One of the all-time lows was two hours spent listening to someone try to justify the merger of two departments with the spin-doctored "1+1=3" nonsense. The exercise, which included flights, meals and accommodation in Wellington, created minimal strategic value and the initiative struggled. By the way, I still can't get that maths to work and if you have a strategic plan which is based on clichs and buzzwords you are in trouble.

Another meeting type which tends to be less than effective is the "lunchtime" meeting. Invariably, important business is subsumed because it "gets in the way of a good feed", or participants' only preparation for the meeting is wondering whether they are going to serve the chicken madras with the basmati rice.

But at other times, meetings can be a powerful medium within which to strategise and make important decisions and it is important that the requisite expertise is available to contribute to those decisions.

Some "best practice" meeting tips:

-A defined and relevant purpose (preferably to make decisions) - remember that a meeting and a "workshop" are completely different things

-A clear agenda with a defined start and conclusion time

-The key people are in attendance

-The appropriate level of documentation provided ahead of the meeting (all material information provided up front)

-Participants have read and understood their papers

-An effective chairman/chairwoman

-Accountability for actions agreed upon in the meeting (with follow up)

-Always maintaining the focus and not getting distracted

You should also regularly review with your team the effectiveness of meetings and the value that they are creating for the organisation. And it is here that there is an important point - you should only change your meeting approach if it creates more value for the organisation, rather than for individuals.

A common statement made after meetings is "that was a waste of time". Given time is so precious, why wouldn't you employ effective techniques to preserve and be more effective with such an important asset?

Buy-in is needed to make this happen, but I have helped businesses employ Lean techniques to revolutionise meetings and make better use of everybody's time and energies. If you combine your team's skills with better meeting techniques, you will make better decisions and be better informed.

-Russell Bell's Zenith Strategic Solutions is a specialist Wanganui business advice and consultancy practice - 021 2442421.