Meeting etiquette…how’s your form?
January 17, 2011 by janet · Leave a Comment
The leader arrives late; there is no agenda; people aren’t sure why they are there; everyone is talking about their own pet issue and no one is listening to each other. Sound familiar? This is how it was when I attended my first meeting of 2011. And, I suspect you’ve had the same experience.
Good meetings are one of the simplest things you can do to improve morale and get the best results from groups. Yet people still consistently get meetings wrong. Worse yet, people accept bad meeting form because the meeting leader has “been so busy” or “doing so many other things well”.
But, think of the example that sets – it perpetuates the problem. You teach each other that bad meeting behaviour is acceptable…that wasting each other’s time is acceptable. The meeting I attended included at least 5 contract employees – some of whom had travelled across town to be there. These people are being paid by the hour to watch someone else mismanage their time.
If you are guilty of sloppy meeting form, the solution might be as simple as getting a better system. Here is mine (thanks to Franklin Covey, which is where I learned it):
- A paper diary. Did she say paper? Yep, that’s right. I love my gizmos and gadgets, but when it comes to meetings, I believe in paper. Think about it…taking notes on paper shows that you are listening (it also reduces the temptation to check emails during the boring bits). My paper diary has the following sections: A month-at-a-glance calendar; a page-a-day section; and a set of tabs in the back with plenty of notes pages – one for each project I am working on and each person who reports to me
- The big picture. I document every meeting in the month-at-a-glance section. Yes, this is duplicating my online calendar, but it’s worth it to be able to see my free time across days…not just hour by hour. This way I have a visual sense of which days and times are going to be my most productive. I can plan to make the best use of those times. (And, if all of my meetings don’t fit in the little boxes, I know it’s time to question how I am spending my time).
- The detail – My paper diary comes with me to every meeting, both in the office and out. When I hear something useful – I write it on today’s page. When I commit to do something, I write it on the todo list. When I hear something important to a project or a person, I write it behind that tab. Then, I make a point to share it at the next meeting with him/her/them. (People really appreciate the flow of information. Can you see how powerful that would be?)
Then, there is just one more thing to bring it all together…once you are organised, make yourself a standard meeting agenda to use during each meeting. It should go something like this.
- Remind everyone why you are meeting and the relevance to their role/project etc
- List the things you hope to talk about/accomplish in the time allotted. If you have a white board, write them there so people can follow along
- Ask the participants if there is anything else – add the additions to the list
- Agree on time for each topic
- Follow agenda
- Wrap up 5 minutes early
- Remind people of their commitments before the next meeting and write these down so they get reviewed next time (hint: if all of the tasks are assigned to you, you are doing something wrong).
Ok, I can hear you out there saying ‘that will take too long’. If that’s you, I challenge you to spend a week observing how much time is wasted while sitting in meetings. Don’t forget to add the time you spend backtracking, jumping between topics, and re-visiting the same issues the following week because no one remembered their actions. Maybe those 1.5 hour meetings could actually be shaved to an hour? Maybe everyone in the room could be using that extra 30 minutes on helping a customer or developing a new idea?
When a company consistently demonstrates good meeting form, they find that meetings actually run shorter. People become more accountable and also more engaged. Good meeting form builds trust in the communication process. People even stop hijacking meetings for their own agendas. Now, wouldn’t THAT be nice?
For the sake of a productive 2011, I challenge you to ask yourself…‘how’s my meeting form?’
IT change lesson 3: Don’t celebrate too early
January 8, 2011 by janet · Leave a Comment
It is often at the point of ‘go-live’ where IT change actually fails. The project team is tired (and often over budget). They start to plan the celebration party and think about their next project or much-needed holiday. But, don’t celebrate just yet. The users are only just starting to use the software, and they need a lot of support in order to stick with the change.
Users often complain that they can’t get their questions answered or issues resolved. When this happens, they turn to older/more familiar ways of getting the job done.
Building knowledge and skills starts with good training, supported by procedure and process documentation. But, those tools must also be reinforced with support. Make sure you have allowed enough time in both the schedule and the budget to support and build skills for change after the system is live.
This includes quick turnaround on questions and problems, easy access to subject matter experts who can build technical skills, but also lots of communication:
- Remind people of the vision
- Keep people in a solution frame of mind and keep a look out for blame.
- Make sure people are spending their energies on empowerment and problem solving.
- Allow communication to include tension…this will improve the quality of the communication and the quality of the result.
The case of the ad hoc database…
When the users at iWork found problems with their new system, they turned back to the project team for assistance. But, there was not commitment to support them through the change. One user reported…
“There were still problems with the system and the support team had been through several business analysts. We would point out the problems, but there were just some things that never got resolved. It all became quite murky, so my team decided to create our own database instead – one that we could control.”
Lesson 3 in IT Change: Don’t celebrate too early.
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