"Meetings, Meetings, Meetings"

 “Meetings, meetings all the time; not a decision to show!” That was a very frustrated manager from a large company, lamenting the futility of meetings. Interestingly his CEO’s view about the quality of meetings in his company was the same.

In a survey amongst CEO’s on “Why companies aren’t as innovative as they want to be?” one of the key findings was about unproductive meetings that wasted every body’s time. 

Another independent research indicates that bosses were the biggest culprits. They called for meetings without notice, are not totally prepared, have no agenda or a clear outcome in mind. As a result, most meetings ramble aimlessly.

Here is a real life example on managing what could have been a rambling meeting.

One of my outstation clients called me up, couple of months ago.

“ Are you free this Thursday?”

“Yes!”

“Two of my colleagues and I are coming down to Bombay. Block your day off.”

“Done. What do you want out of this meeting? What would make you say this trip was worth 3 of you travelling to Bombay?”

“Just save the questions friend. If we were clear, why would we want to see you in the first place? So cut out playing consultant and just be a friend! OK? See you Thursday 9:30”

Thursday morning 9:30 in my office. My clients arrive. I block off all calls. And we start the meeting.

“ We are not sure about what we have here. And we are going to ramble. Stop us any time you want.”

“Ok”

“Where do you want us to start?”

“Wherever you want. I have a small suggestion though.”

“What is it?”

“Can each one of speak independently, one after the other first? It will help me concentrate & understand.”

“Sure. Let me start.”

As the first client spoke, I took detailed notes. Then came the second. He talked about his perspective. So did the third one. 

After all the three finished after about 2 hours, I asked for a coffee break. Two of them went out to smoke and the third one went out for a breath of fresh air.

When they came, I said,

“ I just went through my notes. Can I quickly state what I have understood? Can you tell me if I have got it all right?”

“You are 90% OK. Here are a few clarifications.”

“Thanks. I just want to do one more thing.”

“What is it now?”

“ I have put down on a separate sheet, the key issues coming up based on what I understood. Tell me if that’s right. Here are the 5 broad issues.”

“ Bang on. I would add just one more issue to it.”

“Terrific. Let us discuss the issues one after the other. Tell me for each issue the following. Do we know or have sufficient facts about the issue? And whether the 3 of you here are in a position to take decisions about the issue?”

We suddenly realised that we did not have enough material to discuss the issues. Even more important none of the three were either authorised or competent to take a decision. Yet, a decision on these issues was important. Therefore, we did the next best thing.

1.We identified the right sources from which we could get relevant facts.

2.We outlined the decisions we wanted from the right people

3. Immediately called the right people for appointments for meetings.

We finished all this by 12:45. So, we broke for lunch.

During lunch I asked: “What do you want to do in the afternoon?”

“Why we will discuss things further.”

“What things?”

“The same things that we discussed in the morning.”

“Why would you want to do that? Have we left out anything?”

“Not really.”

“Then..”

“Just in case…”

“Why don’t we do that now…?”

We spent about 15 minutes and realised we had nothing more to discuss. Then something interesting happened.

The first client said: “I am curious. We thought we needed the whole day. Now it looks like we can catch a movie before our flight. Can we spend an hour may be to discuss this meeting? This meeting is one of the most disorganised one I have seen. All of us rambled but we finished ahead of time.”

“What do you think happened?”

“You didn’t speak. You gave us all the air time.”

“OK”

“You really listened to everything. That helped. In fact what helped was that you did not interrupt, you didn’t question except to seek clarifications.”

“How did that help”?

“Because of you we also were disciplined. We did not debate or dispute unnecessarily”

“What else”

“You let us ramble but listened patiently. ” 

“Did you get enough time say everything you wanted.”?

“Of course! And each one of us got that kind of time. We added to each other’s points.”

“What happened after the little nicotine break.”?

“I think that was the turning point. That was smooth. We all had things to say, we even disagreed, but nothing seemed like hardened positions. It was slightly embarrassing when we realised that we neither had the necessary information or the decision-making powers. But the way we converted that in to the next step was pretty good.”

“So what did you get?”

“Some clarity to start with. Some clear action steps. That is much more than what we anticipated.”

“What else?”

“May be some ideas on new ways to run a meeting!!”

My client’s observations on why this meeting was productive are simple but useful. They also indicate why most meetings are disastrous.

The lessons for me are simple.

Listen. Listen. Listen.

Listen with an open mind.

Listen for meanings, not merely words.

Listen for value, for new ideas. (Some ideas are expressed as tentative questions)