Management Matters

Each edition Jackie Astbury, our Training Manager, will look at the ‘managerial side of life’ and focus on management development, providing guidance, tips, techniques and practical advice on an assortment of topics including performance management, conflict management, time management and many more.

According to statistics, meetings are named as the number one time waster in the office* but also studies found the average amount of time office workers spend in meetings is 4 hours a week and it is steadily  increasing**. So it begs the question, why do we spend so much time doing something so unproductive?

*Source Salary.com 2012

**Source Centre for Economics & Business Research2012

Meetings, meetings, meetings. The word does strike dread in many people and I have had my fair share of meetings where I have lost the will to live, or perhaps consciousness, and wondered what I ever did to have been punished in this manner. The trouble with these types of meetings is that they don’t have a clear purpose or objective(s), so my point is simple dear reader, if your meeting has no clear objectives then don’t have one. Meetings that are run properly do all manner of fab things like increase productivity and motivation, solve problems, create ideas etc. However it’s not an effective meeting if it has no clear objective(s) so this has to be your starting point.

Once that’s done you are ready to plan the agenda.

Now you have to decide what is important to you (other than your pet hamster or a glass of wine). If you are organising a meeting there has to be an element of prioritisation in your planning as you cannot discuss absolutely everything, so decide what is important and include that and bear in mind the time you have allocated. Then work down the list and place the most important item first on the agenda and then the next important one etc. In this way if you end up having a longer discussion than anticipated on one topic then you will at least cover the important topics.

I’m not a fan of AOB ‘any other business’, as I have seen this descend into ‘The meeting part 2 – the revenge’ and it goes on for almost the same amount of time as the original agenda meeting. I have two suggestions, don’t do it, or send out your agenda beforehand and ask for items for consideration.

Speaking of time, there is merit in putting a time limit next to each topic in your agenda to allow a realistic amount of time to discuss each one. This helps to keep the meeting on track and to avoid the one hour meeting being pushed to two hours. It also assists with trying to control the meeting so that it doesn’t go off on random tangents with someone discussing their ingrowing toenail operation in graphic detail.

In the past I have attended meetings because I’ve been asked to, plain and simple. Now if it’s not obvious why I need to attend, I ask what I would be expected to contribute and if I find that my contribution would only be minimal, I ask if I could attend at the beginning or end of the meeting, do my part and then leave. In this way I have saved myself an hour of irrelevance and time. When you invite people to meetings consider who needs to be there and if they need to do any preparation and who might also benefit from attending.

When and where are obvious questions to consider, bear in mind times of day and logistics of people who have to travel. Think about what appropriate preparations need to be made before the meeting commences, what people need to be made aware of and aspects of the meeting, like who will take minutes/log action points. Make sure all the relevant information is sent out with the agenda to your attendees.

Onto the meeting itself. Your agenda is your guide so stick to it and remember the purpose of each item and this will help maintain control of the meeting. I’m not a huge advocate of long, detailed minutes where everything is documented including the weather and colour of socks, I prefer a focus on the outcomes and agreed action points for individuals(s). Include what is needed and ditch the rest but make the notes clear to anyone who will be reading them afterwards.

You are going to have occasions where someone will bring up an item that is not on the agenda and the usual response is to discuss it. It might be an item that will need discussing in more detail or with a different group, so suggest that it is included at another time otherwise you have another opportunity for a free for all and then others will think ‘well if he can discuss that, I want to discuss the toilets on floor 4’.

It’s a good idea after discussion on a specific topic to summarise at the end, make sure everyone is clear and whoever has an action point or responsibility is clear as well, otherwise you may have a situation where crucial information is lost in translation in the discussion.

Start on time and finish on time, remember it is not just your time you have to consider. There may be occasions where an agenda item raises information unknown to you and that it requires more time than originally planned. You have to take a view of its importance here and what else you need to cover. If you do decide you need more time you have some options, you can return to it and cover other items, reschedule the other items or you may decide to reschedule the item to another meeting. Involve the attendees in the discussion of this.

You ideally want a meeting where attendees are all involved, participation is encouraged and it is a constructive meeting for all therefore it should be instilled in the fabric of your meetings that not only is participation required but also that the name actions are completed.

Sometimes you need to encourage participation so use open questions to elicit responses, opinions etc. Sometimes you need to bring the conversation to a conclusion so use lots of closed questions to clarify and summarise. Sometimes it is the individual attendees that you may need to deal with. On occasion you get the silent type who doesn’t speak for whatever reason, direct a question to them, either something you know they will know the answer to or ask for an opinion. Then there is the opposite situation, the know it all who keeps speaking. Thank them for their point, park their suggestion and ask the same question to someone else in the group. Negative attendee? Ask them to propose a solution to the issue.

Now it might be because I am an ex-teacher, but I don’t like whispering and side conversations when someone is talking, I usually say ‘is everything okay?’ to the individuals concerned. Discussion and participation is one thing but when someone is talking I think it is only fair to have a rule that their view is listened to. Enough said!

At the end of the meeting summarise and conclude the meeting effectively and check understanding from attendees. Afterwards make sure that meeting notes are sent out promptly and reiterate the importance of actions being completed.

Poorly run meetings waste time and money and are often worse than having no meetings at all. Make sure yours don’t fit into this category.

For more information about management training for your business or for a friendly chat on guidance on training and development of staff contact Jackie Astbury on jackieastbury@chadlaw.co.uk or telephone 0113 2523452.