Honestly, I am a lazy person. I really don’t like meetings that is inefficient. I believe meetings should be capped at 30 mins or less unless it’s a presentation to talk about certain topics. Other than that, meetings should be as short as possible. So how do we do an effective meeting that is short and sweet?
Just recapping back the diagram below…
To me the key to effective meeting is to stay on track with the agenda. And how do one keep with agenda? Typically, I would prefer a meeting room with a whiteboard, and when there’s whiteboard don’t forget to carry good quality markers! I would recommend Pilot Board Master! I carry a pack of 6 in my work bag (together with a mini whiteboard eraser!). In my working experience, I always find there are situations when the whiteboard markers are not up to mark! Hate those barely visible markers!
Generally – before the start of the meeting I would scribble on the whiteboard first. That’s the reason I usually come to my meeting 5-10 minutes earlier. Usually structure my whiteboard like the diagram below:
If you notice, I draw a line on the left and right to section out different things. Yes it does take quite a lot of space, but it helps me to keep everybody in the meeting on point! Worst thing that can happen is that people start straying into off topics. It is understood that as part of ice breaker we talk about the sky, the moon, the star and the cat next door, but that should just be 4-5 mins into the meeting – and we should go straight to the point!
There are 3 components in the board (in addition to the main area):
- Agenda List
- Bucket List
- Next Steps
I am hoping to write more about whiteboarding – but today let’s talk about the agenda and bucket list 😀
Let’s just focus today’s post on the left column. I call the left column the AGENDA COLUMN. Agenda column is divided into two portions:
- Agenda List
- Bucket List
Agenda List is a list that you would fill up at the BEFORE the meeting. As close as possible, the agenda will need to be an exact copy of the list of agenda that you send out earlier during the calendar invite (and yes – don’t forget calendar invite!). You don’t really need to write the whole grandmother sentence in the list, but just a quick 2-3 words that describe the agenda. As you start the meeting, just recap back again the list of agenda. At this point you might add a few more – but use your judgement to make sure that the objective of the meeting is still achieved. For off-topic agenda – you might want to push it to bucket list (refer below). When you finish talking about an agenda or an objective – just strike thru, nobody going to kill you for that!
Bucket List is a list that you would fill up DURING the meeting. In many instances, as you discuss about one topic – you always ended up talking about another topic altogether. For example – you talking about how to solve the problem of the integration between system A and system B. As you going thru the details of that integration – you found out that there is an issue with System A implementation and this another topic altogether. So what generally I would do, instead of talking about the implementation issue, I would put the discussion on the issue in the bucket list. The items in the bucket list can be discussed during the meeting, or it can be a list of items to be discussed in the next meeting.
I do find this method is extremely effective when running a meeting. Here are some of the benefits of doing this:
- Keep meeting on track
- Serve as a reminder of the things that we need to go thru
- Make sure that we run thru every objective/agenda that has been planned
- Create a perception that we are not forgetting about things that is off topic.
Hope this helps!