The Art of Leading Meetings

A Conference Room at the White House - Photo by Danny Smith

“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” - Thomas Sowell

I suspect that most of you have endured the “meeting from Hell” many times in your careers. I certainly have. Perhaps it is a monthly, weekly or even daily occurrence in your organization. These types of meetings and conference calls are best described as “chaotic imprisonment.” They typically have an overly loose agenda or no agenda at all. No one really seems to be in charge. A vast horde of people attend, but most of them have little to no relationship to the matters being discussed. These meetings often start late and go on and on as every minute detail is discussed. No one leaves with a clear understanding of what decisions, if any, were made. No action plans are established and the meeting is never summarized. These types of meetings are expensive and unproductive for your organization. Yet, meetings do not have to be like this. Effective leadership in meetings can yield powerful results.

I will be giving a lecture tomorrow night at Samford University on the art of leading meetings in the project management course that I am teaching this semester. Here are some of the key points I plan to make:

Consensus. Consensus can be good. A leader should strive to facilitate group consensus when problems are being discussed and solved. Have you ever attended a meeting where everyone left with a different understanding of the consensus supposedly reached? This happens when any group consensus is never restated with clarity. It is important for the leader to clearly define any consensus reached before everyone leaves the meeting. What does consensus look like? Does it mean that everyone must reach unanimous agreement? If unanimous agreement is the litmus test, then consensus can be bad. This negative side of consensus is demonstrated in the following quote from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:

“Ah consensus...the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner 'I stand for consensus'?"

In legislative and formal bodies, parliamentary procedure (see Roberts Rules of Order) are typically utilized to achieve group consensus in an orderly and civil manner. However, please don’t try to use parliamentary procedure in your routine business meetings and conference calls – it will not go well! The modern focus on consensus decision-making has been an attempt to engage and empower less powerful stakeholders. A good leader will ensure that diverse opinions are heard in the debate; however, in a crisis, the “buck stops” with the leader. Endless debate on a battlefield, or in a conference room, can be catastrophic.

Granularity. Meetings often include people who dive into the minute “sub-atomic” level of detail when issues are being discussed. That may very well be important if that is the intended focus of the meeting; however, it is a big problem if the meeting time is limited and the meeting purpose is to develop a general plan of action with many diverse stakeholders. When the granularity problem occurs, the meeting leader should tactfully cutoff that line of discussion and plan to continue it later - probably with a fewer number of directly involved stakeholders. 

The Agenda: Don’t meet just to meet unless the purpose is to build relationships. Every meeting should have an agenda. Whenever possible, that agenda should be distributed in advance of the meeting or conference call. It is not only courteous, but it is highly effective to do so as it allows attendees to prepare for the meeting. Remember the Scout moto – “Be Prepared!” The leader must keep the meeting on course. Whenever the discussion drifts off course, the leader must pull everyone back on track. Don’t waste limited meeting time discussing irrelevant or unimportant matters.

Time is of the Essence. Keep your meetings as short as possible. The leader is responsible for starting and ending the meeting exactly on time. If you are scheduling a conference call or meeting room, you might want to schedule it to end at the exact end time so that you are forced to comply with the allotted time.

Memorialize the Meeting. As soon as possible after the meeting, distribute a concise summary of the meeting to all attendees. The meeting summary should be simple. I recommend the following format: state the meeting date, time, purpose, and attendees. Describe the decisions made, action plans, and follow-up items as bullet points.

Laptops and Smart Phones. We live in an era of incredible technology. I am typing this article on my Apple MacBook Pro and I rely on my smart phone as a strategic business tool. It can be efficient to use laptops during meetings to take notes; however, it can also be rude and counterproductive. Unless the complexity of the meeting agenda requires the use of laptops or smart phones, I think they should be closed, silenced, and put away during meetings. I have attended meetings where I was the only person who did not bring a laptop (by choice). During those meeting discussions, there was no eye contact because the other attendees were all typing on their laptops. I have found that it is more effective to use a pen and pad of paper to take notes during a meeting. This allows me an opportunity to have eye contact and truly listen to meeting discussions. Meetings often last too long and attendees leave with a poor understanding of the issues because of the distractions of reading email, checking social media, shopping on Amazon, etc. No wonder modern meetings are so dysfunctional! In your next meeting try using a classic fountain pen to take notes and then summarize them on your laptop sometime after the meeting. This somewhat “old-school” process is very effective. First, it forces you to listen; second, you are forced to think about the discussions as you make your handwritten notes; and third, your understanding of the meeting is reinforced if you summarize your handwritten meeting notes on your laptop later. Another important benefit from this approach is that you build relationships with your team members during meetings by effectively communicating with one another.

Brainstorming. Sometimes the purpose of your meeting is to discuss a new problem or crisis, determine the cause, and develop an appropriate response. The meeting leader must know how to facilitate brainstorming sessions where diverse ideas are gleaned from everyone. Effective brainstorming sessions can result in positive synergy where the collective work of the team is far greater than everyone working independently. 

Functional Conflict. Healthy, functional, conflict in meetings is desirable. In some organizations, everyone sitting around the meeting table is expected to simply smile and concur with whatever statement or proposed idea comes out of the leader’s mouth. In those organizations, any alternative ideas or disagreements are considered an attack on the leader. Perhaps you are familiar with the short tale of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” written by Hans Christian Anderson. In this story, everyone was afraid to reveal the fallacy their leader’s thought process. Don’t be that leader! Encourage functional conflict. On the other hand, dysfunctional conflict, where team members attack one another personally, must not be tolerated.

Knowing when and how to conduct a meeting is an art. Facilitating effective meetings is an act of leadership.

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4