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Avoid Jack In The Box Meetings

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: This article is about some frustrations that occur in meetings and how to avoid them. It highlights one symptom where people get up to leave a meeting only to be called back into session for another issue. I call these Jack-In-The-Box Meetings.

Avoid Jack In The Box Meetings

Meetings can be dysfunctional for many reasons. In fact, most people consider meetings the biggest time waster in any professional environment. I go along with that analysis because I have witnessed first hand so many abuses that it is time to reset the odometer.

The most important ingredient for successful meetings is the skill of the leader. People who know the rules for running a good meeting can make the time invested worthwhile. Unfortunately, many professionals have not been properly trained on how to conduct a worthwhile meeting. The technology is not rocket science at all; in fact most of it is common sense. Let's take a look at some of the elements required for good meeting.

Any time people are going to invest in a meeting, they need to know the objective. A clearly stated reason for the meeting must be advertised in advance. In addition, an agenda for any formal meeting allows an efficient flow from one topic to the next with adequate time given to each topic.

Keeping people on task and avoiding tangents is the role of the meeting leader. Think of this person as a traffic cop, who directs the flow of activities within the meaning to accomplish the objective and allow each person some airtime.

One observation made by a student in one of my classes was that his boss would try to end the meeting and have everyone get up from the table only to have an individual ask a question and the boss call everybody back into the room to sit down. The student said this could happen from 3 to 4 times at the end of any typical meeting. This would appear like a Jack-in-the-Box meeting where individuals jump up to leave but that are summoned back to sit down and have another helping of boring conversation.

There are numerous tips for using time efficiently in meetings, and it is incumbent on the leader of the meeting to be knowledgeable and skilled in these areas. One overarching precept is to treat people in the meeting like adults. The first question for any meeting ought to be "is the agenda for today's meeting the correct way for us to be using our time"? If not, the leader has to have the courage torip up the current agenda and start over so people are aware that their time is being valued.

Another typical problem is when you have someone who wants to grandstand or filibuster. This individual can derail any meeting quickly by simply gaining the floor. It is up to the leader, along with peer pressure from the other participants, to prevent this distraction. If necessary, the person needs to be ejected from the meeting so that the remaining members can get the work done.

Any meeting ought to have time set aside for reinforcement. It's important for people to have some good feelings associated with the content of the meeting. I prefer to have a time for reinforcement near the beginning of any meeting. This allows people to feel good about what is happening before getting into some of the more challenging content. I think it is a mistake to force people to praise each other in some kind of a pattern like going around the room where one person thanks the next person and then that person praises the person sitting next to him etc. It is far better to have the reinforcement time be spontaneous and sincere so that true appreciation is expressed rather than stilted forced comments.

When people want to take the meeting on a tangent, it is necessary to stop the process and ask if the whole group is willing to sacrifice the original agenda to accommodate the tangent. The question that should be asked is "do we want to spend time on this topic or bring it up at another date"?

Action items that are agreed upon as a result of the meeting must be documented. An undocumented action item is an invitation for people to goof off after the meeting and not doing the intended action. It is important to write down what the agreement is and who is going to do what by when. Then a brief set of meeting notes documenting the action items allows everyone who was at the meeting, and also people who are not at the meeting, to know what actions resulted.

Running effective meetings is not really difficult. Unfortunately, in many organizations leaders do not use common sense rules to allow an efficient transfer of information and decision-making process. If you work in an organization where meetings are a waste of time, it is time to bring in some training because these problems can easily be resolved. The result will be a much more efficient and satisfying use of our most precious commodity, which is our time.

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Article Tags: frustration, Meetings, problems, Time



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