Management Memes: How to Run a Successful Meeting, Part Two of Two: Coaching the Meeting

This tip is for anyone that is tired of meetings wasting your time. 

Not like this, I hope.

HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL MEETING, Part Two of Two

The meeting's all set up. The goal is written in plain English on the board. The agenda is clear and actionable. The attendees are in place, facing the whiteboard, and they are paying attention. (See Part One if you need a refresher.)

You're on deck to make it happen. This is going to be easy. 

Does the coach
play the game? Nope!

YOU ARE THE COACH, NOT THE PERSON WITH THE ANSWERS

Getting up in front of a group of people can be scary. Doing it without knowing what's going to happen in a meeting can also be scary. 

Our goal here is to set you up to succeed, so you can be comfortable in your own skin while you allow the team to come up with the answers themselves. 

TELL THEM

Let the team know that your goal is to facilitate and not to dictate. While you are the person with final say, their opinions and experience are to be listened to while things are evaluated.

HOUSEKEEPING

At the beginning of the meeting, let everyone know these things:

• Your role is to facilitate the meeting, not dominate it.
• Additional Agenda Items are to be added as we go. 
• Verify that everyone has enough time to complete this meeting. One hour max. 
• Any To Do items are to be added to an ongoing list.
• If new items that are unrelated come up, they are to be tracked separately.

Who, What, When?

START WITH THE FIRST AGENDA ITEM

Read it out loud. Is it something that we really need to work on? Is it written in a way that everyone understands what needs to be done? Who is responsible for this item? Are we asking the right questions? Who knows the right question? When can you get an answer?

TRACK THE ANSWERS

For each agenda item, know WHO is going to do WHAT and WHEN it is to be completed. Write these on the board so everyone knows what they are responsible for. 

TIMEKEEPING

After each item, check the clock and let everyone know how many minutes remain in the meeting. You'll know when you need to update everyone, so this is something you'll have to adjust as needed. 

ACTION ITEMS

You can never
predict everything

For anything that does not fit within a "to do" for an agenda item, add a new section on the whiteboard for Action Items. Keep these together in this section. WHO, WHAT, WHEN are required for these as well. 

NEW ISSUES

Invariably, new problems come up and they may not have anything to do with topics in your meeting. In order to show respect for the person that brought them up, and to allow others in the room to percolate on them, make a note of them on the board. You can come back to those if you have time at the end of the meeting, or handle them in any other way you choose, but do NOT ignore or forget them. 

LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT

Continue the agenda items until you are completed. Then do a gut check with the team. Did we complete our original goal? If not, talk about it and figure out what should be done. This isn't a rare occurrence, so be ready for that eventuality. Start with checking your original premises and agenda items. 

FOLLOW UP WITH EMAIL

Documentation!

The real secret is ensuring full communication that can be shared with everyone. Once the meeting is over, a summary of the meeting must be sent to everyone, with the WHO WHAT WHEN clearly documented. 

If you are in a pinch, you can take a picture of the whiteboard and mail it, but that is not acceptable as a rule.  

Members have 24 hours to notify you of any errors, otherwise they are held responsible for their items.

THAT'S IT! 

There's really not a secret to this stuff other than to not take anything personally. Your role is to perform as a coach and put structure to the experience. 

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I hope this helps you and if it doesn't, please let me know in the comments section so I can update this in a useful manner!

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What do I know?

Feel free to look me up here.

meme mēm noun: an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, esp. imitation.

As a manager (and reader of a bunch of management stuff) for the past 20 years, I have had requests for management tips. Some things work; some don't. Some are magical wins. Some are spectacular failures. Your mileage may vary. Whatever the case, these techniques have worked magic for me, time and time again.

Management Memes: How to Run a Successful Meeting, Part One of Two: Setting the Stage for Success

This tip is for anyone that is tired of meetings wasting your time.  

HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL MEETING, Part One of Two

I read a book once on running meetings that was pretty dull, like most management books, but it had one thing that was completely worthwhile and I'm going to share it here: 

Meetings should
NOT feel like this

Face the problems; not each other. 

Really. It's that simple. Over the years, I've adopted and adapted other strategies, and I'll cover them here, but that's the best place to start.

You must de-personalize the issues so you're not hung up on your problems or your solutions. Only then can you find the real answer. Believe it or not, a team can do a pretty good job of figuring it out on their own. You just have to enable them.

Here's the gist:

• Get people to sit facing a whiteboard.
• Agree to a time limit with a one hour maximum
• Agree on the GOAL of the meeting

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• Write the agenda with the help of everyone involved



More like this

• Do the meeting (this is for Part Two)

FACE A WHITEBOARD
The biggest problem you may have is the people in your group, and they are also your biggest solution. You just have to help them navigate to those solutions. 

Get your team to sit at a table (or arrange the chairs in a semi-circle) facing a whiteboard. You're going to put the meeting goal, agenda, and issues that need to be solved on the whiteboard. 

The discussion changes from "us vs. us" to "idea vs. idea." 

One hour limit

ONE HOUR MAXIMUM
Let's get real. An hour of full attention is all you can expect from a group. If you're aiming for more, why are you making that mistake? It's not going to work. Just get over yourself. 

Set a reasonable time boundary for the meeting. Reaffirm that boundary in the meeting and keep track of it as the meeting progresses.

When a meeting runs over the time boundary, just schedule another, even if it's just after taking a break.  

AGREE ON THE GOAL
Meetings start with their end goals in mind. 

I have been very successful by writing what I *thought* the meeting goal is on the whiteboard first and then asking everyone if that is, indeed, the correct goal for the meeting. 

Oddly enough, it turns out that no matter what I think the goal ought to be, we almost always wind up re-writing that goal. And every time we re-write it... it makes the meeting that much better and gets a better result. 

Can you make a checklist
for a goal or agenda
item? If not, try again.

Lighten up and listen to your team; it's really not all about you. 

WRITE THE AGENDA
After you get the GROUP to decide on what the goal is, it's time to write up the agenda. They know what they need to get out of the meeting. 

Ensure that these agenda items can create an "actionable" result. 

.

Get participants involved in writing the agenda. Make sure that everyone knows that all agenda items must be measurable and concrete. 


PART TWO: COACHING THE MEETING

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Please let me know what I got right and wrong in the comments section; that's how I'll learn!!


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What do I know?

Feel free to look me up here.

meme mēm noun: an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, esp. imitation.

As a manager (and reader of a bunch of stuff) for the past 20 years, I have had requests for management tips. Some things work; some don't. Some are magical wins. Some are spectacular failures. Your mileage may vary. Whatever the case, these techniques have worked magic for me, time and time again.

Put up Your Dukes!!

Once upon a time, in 1988, I applied for a job at the Austin State Hospital. They had a 2 week paid training program and one of the biggest things they got through to us was that they wanted us to be certain that our clients were always wearing nice clothes and being taken care of all of the time.

When I got through with the training program I was assigned to the Extended Care ward, where they generally had patients that were there for the long haul. 


There, I met Theo, who was the shift manager. He gave me the walk around and I got a high level view of how the unit worked. Then we went back to the day room.

One of the first patients I met was a man named Lloyd who had been there for like 40 or 50 years. Theo told me that he had been an amazing boxer in his youth.

One of the things they were adamant about in training was that we were supposed to be sure that we were to ensure that patients were properly dressed at all times. I noticed that Lloyd was wearing pants that were too big for him and he was holding them up with his hands, so I decided to take it upon myself to help him out. 

I mentioned it to Theo. He also saw that Lloyd had been dressed incorrectly, so when I suggested that we go change Lloyd, he agreed.

I asked Lloyd if I could get him some pants that fit. He said "yeah," so we all walked back to the laundry area. After a few pairs of pants were tried out, we found a pair that fit well (they can't wear belts). Lloyd was happy, and that gave me a feeling of satisfaction! First day at work win!

We got back to the day area and Lloyd re-entered the population.  

After a little while, I went back to check on Lloyd and maybe to get to know him a little bit better. "Lloyd, how are those pants working out for you?" "Oh yes they are great." And at that point Lloyd took a step back and swung his right arm toward me. At that moment I realized that it was a roundhouse punch coming at me and it was going to clean my clock if I didn't move. The universe went into Matrix Mode and I managed to pull my head out of the way as his fist whooshed by my nose.

As the adrenaline started rushing through my system, I heard Theo. I was expecting him to come running to save me, but he was laughing uncontrollably. I was hyperventilating and he was laughing at me? He walks over and says "Oh man! He almost got you." "Yeah, what is wrong with him?" "Well, I told you that he was a boxer, and sometimes he thinks that he's back in the ring."

He thinks he is back in the ring. Nice.

"So what do you do when he takes a swing at someone?" I asked. "Well we did have a good plan in place to deal with it before, but it won't work now," says Theo. Starting to get curious, I asked "Why not?" 

"Because he doesn't have to hold his pants up now that they fit."

A few weeks later, a new round of recruits entered the unit. According to Theo, one of them inevitably asks to help Lloyd... so when I was asked about finding some new pants, I was more than happy to help them find the way to the laundry hamper.