On average employees spend around 6h per week in work meetings. Senior management spends 20-30h per week in meetings in corporate environments. 🕢

What helps your team to have productive meetings?

When a meeting takes longer than 15 mins, employees tend to do something other than work during the meeting, including texting, snacking, surfing the web, etc.

No wonder, most of these people take work home and get burned out sooner or later. 😐

At the same time, everyone loves meetings where one can have their stake, and feel they contribute value so that meeting they attended wasn’t a waste of their precious time. 🤩

Here is a checklist and ground rules that help me and helped my team and can help you and your team to align to make your meetings more productive:

1. 𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲? Multiply the per-hour cost of each professional on your team you plan for by the time you are going to spend with them on a meeting. Does that cost worth that?

2. 𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆? Review your current meetings and align with your team on how the meetings affect them now, and what frequency would work better. How about doing standups twice or thrice a week?

3. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 & 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘇𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀. If you plan a workshop, check with your mates in different time zones. How is their productivity when you have a 6-12-hour difference?

4. 𝗕𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 even if you are a C-level or a founder. Being on time is the first commitment you and your teammates should make. That’s where your culture starts. Or ends.

5. 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿. Before each team meeting, choose the person responsible for leading/guiding the meeting process. That can be almost anybody on your team!

6. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲. They help everyone to stay attuned and be more focused.

7. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 & 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰. Make every topic on your agenda time-bound. Encourage your meeting attendees to fit within the planned time blocks.

8. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮 𝗼𝗻” 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲.

9. 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵. As a host, make sure every meeting doesn’t go beyond the set time limit.

10. 𝗘𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. Start each meeting with a review of the outcomes. Make sure there are no growing piles of unfinished work.

To make this post readable I tried to keep it brief.

I will elaborate on all these points in more detail in one of my future articles + I would add few important points I omitted for the sake of brevity.

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀?