Effective Meetings

The only phrase heard more frequently than “I hate these meetings” is “Why are we having this *&^%$#@ meeting?” In one of an irregular series about productivity, I want to shed some light on how you can chair effective meetings.

I have written this from the perspective of the person convening the meeting — the assumption is that you are in charge of the meeting. If you aren’t, as physicians, you are usually in a position to influence, so even if you are only a participant, I would argue the below rules are applicable.

Here are 14 rules about meetings that I have found to be extremely useful.

1. Clearly identify the purpose of the meeting well in advance. At the start of every meeting, I ask participants, “What is the purpose of this meeting?” and, just as important, “What are the expected deliverables?”
2. Start and end on time. My standard question at 11 o’clock, is, “What time is the 11 o’clock meeting starting?” As the leader, be in a position to observe the clock, without being obvious. You owe it to the participants to manage the meeting so it ends on time. I announce the schedule and the end time of the meeting right up front, and ask everyone’s help in making it so.
3. Designate the scribe. In almost every situation, a scribe should record decisions reached and actions assigned, versus a verbatim transcript.
4. Have an agenda. Seems obvious, yet the number of meetings without an agenda is amazing.
5. Stick to the agenda. Seems even more obvious, yet absent a firm hand, your meeting can easily wander off into uncharted territory.
6. If the right people can’t make it, reschedule the meeting. Be very careful of accepting substitutes who are not fluent in the issue.
7. If you (and more importantly, if the participants) are not prepared, reschedule the meeting.
8. Listen. If the purpose of the meeting is to make a decision, and you’re in charge, then stop talking until everyone, particularly the junior people, has opined.
9. If you don’t have all the information you need to make the decision, then adjourn until you do.
10. Do not tolerate inappropriate or rude behavior. If someone personalizes an issue, if someone prattles on, or if someone’s behavior is inappropriate, then the meeting participants expect you to stop it. If you don’t, this aberrant behavior will be perceived as the norm, and will multiply.
11. Make the decision. After all the opinions have been heard, and after a consensus has been reached, decide. If it is clear that there has been no consensus, then you have to make the decision to adjourn until more data is obtained or decide without a consensus. Don’t “kick the can down the road” unless you are missing key data.
12. Assign action items and, more importantly, deadlines.
13. Summarize the results of the meeting and schedule the next meeting (if appropriate). Failure to state, publicly and succinctly, the outcome of the meeting can result in people leaving with incorrect (sometimes deliberately so) assumptions.
14. Get the minutes out, quickly.