Reduce Unfinished Meetings

Ever wondered why sometimes you have so many meetings and so many of them felt like “Deja Vu”? Sometimes you wondered into the meeting room and ended up thinking or talking to your self saying that I have discussed this last time, but I can’t remember the outcome. Unfortunately your feelings right too that there was really no outcome from the last identical meeting!

This happened to me multiple times and those kind of meetings are really the time waster. Fortunately over the course of my career I found a few tips and techniques that can reduce these sort of meetings. I say reduce because I don’t think we can have 0% of these unfinished meetings because most meetings  consist of humans and humans are unexpected dynamic creatures.

Let’s get down to business and talk about what are those pointers that has helped me and can possibly help you.

Meeting Construct

Always send your meeting invitation with solid agenda. At the very least, list out up to 3 things that you want to achieve out of that meeting. Ensure those objectives can be achieved within the timeframe that you allocated. If you think it’s too much, then use your lean agile mindset and slice the objective of this meeting.

Having a construct will ensure that you and your audience have something to refer to whenever you think the meeting is going to the wrong directions.

15mins Countdown Timer

This one is my favourite. Use your phone and set a countdown timer of 10-15 mins, let your alarm ring when the countdown reaches 0. Doing this will break the conversations and give you the opportunity to let the audience know that 15 mins have been exhausted and we have yet to reach at least one of the objectives.

Rabbit, Hats, Squeaky Rubber Ducky

You can use whatever weird objects or words on this one. Tell your meeting attendees that if they felt the conversation is going down the rabbit hole, then shout “Rabbit” or wear the funny hat or press the squeaky rubber ducky. Again this will break the conversation flow, allowing the audience to rethink of what really matters.

The Law of 2 Feet

Remind your audience that they have 2 feet and that they can use them. If they think that they are not contributing or getting anything out of the meeting, then they can use their 2 feet and leave the meeting. With note that they are not allowed to ask for meeting recap or ask to change the decisions that came out of the meeting. This is a great way to save a lot of time for everyone.

Don’t have the Meeting at All

If you think you can just discuss the topic real-time with your team, then there’s really no need for a meeting. Just remember, some things are better discussed in real time.

I hope the tips above helps you with your meetings. Feel free to leave some comments in this post if you have any questions or share any other interesting meeting tips!