Meetings Revisited
by edavis on 09/03/10 at 1:13 am
Meetings: The endless time suck or the path leading to greater efficiency, effectiveness, and just plain getting things done? For me, it was the former.
As I’ve stated before, I dreaded my weekly status meetings, especially the ones I ran. I wanted my meetings to serve a purpose, foster better communications, focus our strategy, and lead to actionable outcomes. So, I gave Patrick Leniconi’s Death By Meeting approach a shot and wrote about my initial results and thoughts.
productive team meeting
Now, I’ve had more time to reflect on Leniconi’s approach. I know what works for me and my team and what simply doesn’t do the trick. So, here it goes.
Daily Check-ins
Without a doubt, these are absolutely essential. I manage a large government contract that includes working with over 30 staff members and two subcontractors. Keeping communications flowing was of utmost concern. Building team unity, trust, and cohesiveness were also imperative.
So, I instituted a daily check-in with my team leads. We met regularly every morning at 9:15 a.m., whether or not everyone could make the meeting. Each team lead spent 1-2 minutes talking about what his/her team were working on that day. At times, certain team members wanted to focus on larger issues, but we did a good job of moving those discussions to our weekly tactical meetings.
The daily check-ins, while a pain in the beginning, were great. They led to a reduction in email volume, allowed us to see the entire contract as a whole, and brought the team together to discuss issues and quickly identify and ward off any problems in a timely fashion. The daily check-ins are a definite mainstay in my management toolkit.
Weekly Tactical
On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of his approach to weekly tactical meetings. While on the surface his approach makes sense and he has some great ideas on how to do these, it simply didn’t work for my situation. I found that it often led to unproductive and unfocused meetings. It easily could have been how I conducted the meetings, but once I reverted back to using pre-planned agendas , my meetings became more focused, efficient, and effective.
Monthly Strategic and Quarterly Off-Site
I haven’t had a chance to employ his approach for these yet, but I will consider his advice on how to run these for future meetings.
Overall
I think his book should be a definite read. He offers an interesting approach on how to conduct various types of meetings that people should consider. People should keep an open mind to his approach, but be aware that it may not always work for their situation. There are other ways to conduct meetings that people should consider as well, including the 22 minute meeting that is gaining some popularity
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