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Over the past month I have saw a number of posts that dismissed the value of meetings. I first noticed this sentiment with Jason Calacanis post on Start-Up tips. He then elaborated on it during a session of Steve Gilmor's Newsgang. Ever since then I have noticed other posts or comments dismissing the value of meetings. I agree with Jason that most meetings are very unproductive, but in my experience the problem is not the concept of a meeting, it is our management of the meeting process.

Let me explain. We have all been there. The dread that we are going to waste another hour in a meeting and accomplish nothing. During my time as a management consultant and in numerous group meetings in my MBA program, I quickly discovered that meeting management was one of my strengths (a benefit of a personality dedicated to efficiency). I think people who participated in meetings that I managed appreciated the efficiency.

I will give some tips below, but first I would like to discuss why I feel (well run) internal meetings are very important. Internal meetings have very obvious strengths and weaknesses that if understood can be a great tool for a company. First, they serve as a great platform to generate or discuss ideas. Forget about advances in communication technology, no platform is more efficient at sharing multiple perspectives than in-person communication. Second, meetings are an efficient way to set expectations among different functional areas (painting a picture better than any text communication). These are the strengths of meetings, but there are some weaknesses. First, without structure, people can talk endlessly causing the meeting to run on forever. Second, without discipline, a meeting can easily fail to resolve anything. Third, the immediacy of the communication can create situations of conflict when parties fail to keep communication professional. Hopefully, proper meeting management leverages a meetings strengths and minimizes its weaknesses. Now, here are my meeting management tips:

1. Focused Goals - Before the meeting, know what you want to accomplish and communicate it to meeting participants. Don't try to accomplish everything in one meeting - make sure your goals are targeted. On your invite communicate that goal and a proposed agenda.
2. Exclusive - Only invite people who are necessary to resolve the issue. For matters that touch outside your functional area, try to get as much cross functional representation as possible (preferably limiting it to one person from each area).
3. Introduce - Start your meeting off right by setting the tone. Tell people why they are here and what you want to accomplish. State any key background details to frame the discussion for the participants. Remember they should already know most of this from your meeting invite, so keep it succinct.
4. Discipline - Set an agenda and time frames in advance of the meeting and stick to them. Have some flexibility for productive discussions, but try to adhere to the schedule. As manager do not let one person dominate the discussion. If you catch people who continually repeat the same point, acknowledge the point and state that you want to hear other peoples thoughts.
5. Visualize - People learn aurally, visually, and through touch. Obviously, meetings facilitate an environment for aural discussion, but a good manager will leverage the ability to visually communicate. Either you or another participant should use a white board to list ideas, diagram processes, or whatever else visually communicates the discussion. An efficiently run meeting that facilitates aural and visual learning will deliver extraordinary results.
6. Action - Wherever someone agrees to do something, take a moment to clarify the deliverable. Clarify the 3W's - who is to responsible, what they are to deliver, and when the deliverable is due. These simple steps clarify what is to be done and sets accountability.
7. Summarize - At the end of the meeting summarize the key learnings and next actions that flowed from the meeting. State how you will follow up on this meeting. This will ensure everyone is on the same page and reinforce the accomplishments to the participants.
8. Follow-Up - Send out a follow-up email thanking everyone for a productive meeting. The follow-up should include your summary and all actions that were assigned. Afterwards, as meeting leader, you should track that everyone delivers their actions. It is amazing how much gets accomplished when people recognize that you hold them accountable.

I hope these ideas help you organize great meetings. I am sure some of you are saying that my ideas are pretty obvious - they are. It is not the ideas that are difficult, it is the discipline and confidence needed to execute them. Practice makes perfect. If make a conscious effort to use these ideas, you will see improvement in your meeting management skills. I am sure there are many other tips on how to run great meetings. I would love to hear about other peoples ideas. Also, I recognize the simplicity of these ideas, so chime in if you want to talk about more complex situations.