INTRODUCTION

Improve meetings

Have you ever participated in a meeting where you felt time wasn't used wisely, where you'd
rather be anywhere else? This course guides you through ways to get the most from your
meetings, particularly in a group context. First, I'll walk you through the principles of running a
productive and effective meeting. We'll explore how to set your meetings up for success before
you come together as a group, including strategies to determine the best times to meet and how
to create an agenda.

I'll also provide tips and tricks to keep meetings running smoothly and make sure everyone has a
chance to participate. Lastly, I'll guide you through what to do after the meeting is over so that
all the participants take action and follow through on their commitments. Our goal is to improve
the results you receive from your meetings and to make sure that they're a wise use of your
time. With these simple strategies, you'll have all the tools you need to lead productive meetings.

Group meetings

This course is designed to be useful for anyone who participates in a meeting, whether you're
the person who is leading the meeting, or you are participating as part of the group. This course
is geared toward group meetings, which means three or more people attending at a time. While
the principles I'll teach are universal to any type of meeting, there is another course here called
Leading Productive One-On-One Meetings if you're interested in learning how to conduct private
meetings that are effective.

Also, it may be helpful to download the exercise files in advance. These files include templates
and checklists that you can use to prepare and hold effective meetings. While you're welcome to
use these exactly as provided to you, I would suggest that you use these as a starting point, and
then adapt them to the needs of your organization. Now, let's get started.

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 GENERAL PRINCIPLES

The six principles of successful meetings

While there are many principles involved in holding productive meetings, I've identified six that
are essential. Throughout this course, we'll be weaving in ways to use these six principles in your
meetings. As I share these with you, think about which principle or principles you need to
improve your current meetings. The first principle is purpose. Each meeting should have a clear
purpose. Unfortunately, many of you have experienced meetings that are held simply because
someone felt it was a good idea to have a meeting.

The principle of purpose suggests that every meeting should have an objective, a reason why
you're having the meeting. Before scheduling a meeting and inviting others to attend, first ask
yourself this question. What is the result I want from this meeting? The second principle is time.
In other words, how long should the meeting be? We'll take a look at figuring out an appropriate
amount of time for your meetings. While there's no hard-and-fast standard for meeting length,
there is a general rule of thumb that applies to nearly every meeting, the shorter, the better.

Meetings will almost always take as long or longer than you schedule them to last. Short and
concise meetings, kept to schedule, force participants to make wise decisions about how to use
the time during the meeting. If you need additional assistance with time management, I also
recommend you schedule time to go through my course Time Management Fundamentals. The
third principle is agenda. An agenda is simply a step-by-step outline for participants to follow in
the meeting.

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Agendas can help wrangle unruly meetings that drift aimlessly. We'll take a look at a suggested
agenda you can use as a starting point. We'll also explore ways to use the agenda so every
attendee can participate and have a voice in the meeting. The fourth principle is preparation.
Prior to attending the meeting, every participant should take a few moments to prepare their
questions and consider how they can serve others.

I'll give you easy tips to make preparation very simple, something that takes no more than a few
minutes, but has a big impact on improving meeting effectiveness. The fifth principle is focus.
Focused meeting participants stay true to the stated purpose. Focused meeting participants stay
engaged in the meeting. They listen, remain attentive, and avoid multitasking. Many obstacles
get in the way of meeting focus, making it easy for meeting participants to be distracted.

You want to utilize strategies to reduce these distractions. And the sixth principle is leadership.
Who is in charge of the meeting? The meeting leader may be an executive, a manager, or a
designated meeting facilitator. Regardless of who that person is or what position they hold, every
meeting can benefit from having a leader. The leader ensures that the other five effective
meeting principles are followed.

They keep the meeting on target, so it accomplishes its purpose. They help ensure that the
meeting begins and ends on time. The leader keeps the meeting on agenda and helps others
prepare for the meeting and stay focused. The more you can use these six principles, purpose,
time, agenda, preparation, focus, and leadership, the more successful and productive your
meetings will become.

Frequency and style of meetings

There is no one perfect style of meeting. In fact, it's a good idea to use a variety of different
meeting styles in order to accomplish the results desired by your group. There are dozens of
ways to think about these meetings, but I prefer to categorize them according to the timeframe
of how often you meet. The three major timeframes are daily, weekly, or monthly yearly. The
daily meeting can take a variety of formats.

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Sometimes these are referred to as standing meetings, scrum meetings, or a daily check in and
report. Whatever you choose to call it, it's important to keep daily meetings brief. Often the
purpose of the daily meeting is to get every team member to check in with each other, to report
what they're working on during that day, and then to quickly get back to work. While many of
the principles that I share here do apply to daily meetings, you may have a less formal agenda
and may not spend much time on training people on your team.

The next style of meeting is weekly, and I've found that this is often the most common type of
meeting. A weekly meeting is typically more formal. It's a bit more of a sit down or even a
conference call with a group of team members. The purpose of the weekly meeting moves
beyond just a quick check in and into more collaboration and coordination of efforts. Because
this is the most popular type of meeting, the majority of this course is geared toward this kind of
meeting.

The last type of meeting is monthly or yearly. These are devoted to much more involved training
sessions. Sometimes these are called retreats or training days, but the purpose is often to
announce or develop a new significant project, or it's to help the team get to the next level of
understanding, training, and ability. Because of this, though most of the principles that you see
in this course still apply, you want to place extra emphasis on a formal agenda with a clear start
and stop time, as well as set aside a great deal of time for leaders to share their perspectives
and also allow attendees to receive more training.

As you go though this course, rather than trying to improve all of the meetings that you have at
once, pick one of these three categories and focus your thinking. Ask the question, how can I
use the principles that I'm learning here to improve the quality of this meeting?

Using technology in meetings

Meetings and technology go hand in hand. As technology has advanced, so have the methods
and opportunities that we have to meet with each other. However, each new advancement also
offers challenges. Far too many meetings are stalled or drag on because of problems with

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technology. To make your meetings more effective for you and for the other participants, we've
provided a very simple checklist the meeting leader can use prior to every meeting.

You can use it to double check all of your resources and ensure that technology is a helpful
resource and not an aggravating frustration. There are three basic areas that this checklist
covers. The first area deals with telephones. The second deals with audio visual. And then,
finally, video or web-conferencing. It's a good practice to use this checklist approximately one
hour before each meeting to make sure every aspect of technology has been double checked
and is working.

A couple of things to keep in mind as you use this checklist. First, it's designed for small, ongoing
meetings that usually occur inside of a company or other organization. This checklist is not
designed for large events or seminars. Also, this checklist is designed to be very generic and
adaptable to a wide variety of situations. So, feel free to customize it to your unique needs. Also,
we've left a few blanks on each checklist so you can add your own items to double check before
a meeting.

In any meeting, it's the leader's job to ensure each person has the opportunity to be heard and
seen. If you have influence over the technology budget, assess each tool such as webcams,
speakers, projectors, and so on, and ask, "If we made an investment "in improving this tool,
would it greatly "improve the quality of our meetings?" With just a little attention to your
technical needs, you'll find meetings will go smoother and technology will do what it's meant to
do which is improve the productivity of your meetings.

CHAPTER QUIZ

1. Which principle of successful meetings best relates to the idea that every meeting
should have a clear objective?

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 a. Agenda

b. Leadership

c. Purpose

d. Preparation

2. What type of meeting would be best suited to roll out new initiatives and lengthy
training sessions?

a. weekly meeting

b. daily check-in

c. monthly/yearly meeting

d. standing meeting

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 BEFORE THE MEETING

Determining whether a meeting is necessary

I once coached a client to help her with her time management. During the course of our training
we analyzed her calendar and realized that meetings were sucking her calendar dry of almost
every available minute. She had almost no time available to perform any real work. While I
would hope that this situation is unusual, it's becoming more and more common. I blame this on
an overdependence on meetings.

When someone feels that they need to discuss something, their first thought is often let's get
everyone together and hold a meeting. I would propose a different approach. When you feel the
need to invite other people to participate with you in a meeting, first ask the question: How can
we take care of this without having a meeting? I'm going to give you a few questions you can
ask that may help you discover whether or not the meeting is necessary.

The first question to ask is: Do we have all the information that we need for a meeting? Without
having everything you need on hand, holding a meeting is premature. If you're lacking key
information, schedule a reminder to revisit your meeting idea once the necessary information is
available. The second question to ask is: Do we need to discuss and collaborate or are we just
going to delegate and calendar? Try to avoid situations where many people are sitting in the
room while a leader delegates task one by one to each attendee.

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These items can usually be handled through one on one conversations or even through email.
The third question is: Is it critical that we're all on the same page? If the answer is no, then
again, this may be better handled with one leader holding many individual conversations. This
allows everyone else to continue working effectively without having to wait during the meeting.
The fourth and final question is: Would this meeting directly serve each attendee's most valuable
activities? Most valuable activities are the activities that you perform that bring the greatest
impact to the bottom line of the business.

If a handful of people could handle the issues of the meeting while others are out working on
different activities that bring the most value to the company, find a way to excuse them. They
could always catch up on the meeting through summary notes or an email at a later time.
There's no hard and fast rule about when you should or should not meet. However, by asking
these four questions you'll avoid many of the unnecessary meetings and help people stay
focused on doing their most valuable work.

Scheduling a meeting

When you schedule a meeting to occur depends largely upon the frequency and style of the
meeting that we're talking about. After you've decided on the style of the meeting, how do you
ensure that it appears correctly on everyone's calendar? And how do you ensure you're creating
a schedule that works for almost everyone? First, it's helpful to make sure everyone in your
organization is using the same calendar tool. This will help us avoid making mistakes.

If one person is using Outlook and another person is using Google Calendar, and another person
is using iCal, you can imagine there are going to be some miscommunications and things that
aren't going to appear properly. Try to get everyone on the same page. There are many fantastic
tools available to help with scheduling meetings. They can give you access to the schedules of
every person that you're inviting, and allow you to suggest multiple times to multiple people.

Some will even handle the coordination for you. Let the technology do the work for you, it will
save you hours of frustration and help you stay focused. Second, consider the rhythm of your
organization. Every team has a unique rhythm to it. Times and days when they're more likely to
be interrupted, or where the work load is going to be heaviest. For example, in a sales

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department, there are key times of the week when sales reps should be out making contacts and
transactions.

We want to avoid scheduling meetings during these times. Instead, schedule meetings as much
possible outside of peak productivity hours. And lastly, when scheduling a meeting, consider how
reminders will be sent out to everyone. While we'd like to think that everyone is on top of their
calendar, odds are somebody at some point is going to get distracted, and may forget about the
meeting. There are two kinds of reminders to use.

First are automatic computer reminders. Most every calendar program offers a function to create
reminders for yourself and others when scheduling a meeting. So, use that feature if it's there.
Pay attention to when the reminder is set to occur, and make sure that it's timed to happen
before the meeting. Maybe even consider more than one reminder. A second type of reminder is
a personal reminder.

The easiest way to do this is through email. For example, one team member that will be
meeting, might be tasked with sending a brief email to everyone the day before, reminding them
of the meeting time and location. By giving just a little bit of attention to the calendaring tools
that you use, the rhythm of your workplace, and reminders, you'll help people show up on time,
get prepared, and feel like they can give you your full attention.

Determining a meeting leader

In my experience, meetings work best when there is a designated leader. Call them what you
will, a coach, a mentor, president, facilitator, whatever you like. The meeting leader's
responsibility is to keep the meeting focused and productive. They remind participants of ground
rules and act as the timekeeper. How you select the meeting leader is up to you. One simple
method is based on position, meaning that whoever is in the highest position in the room,
whether that's the manager, CEO, project leader, or executive, they're the meeting leader.

The advantage of this method is that there's already an established structure of reporting and
accountability. This person already has responsibility for training the group. The disadvantages of

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this method are that it may not develop leadership in other members of the group. Also,
designating the most senior member as meeting leader sometimes leaves other people feeling
that the meeting is always controlled or dominated by one person.

An alternative option for choosing the meeting leader is by rotation. Any kind of rotation will
work as long as each attendee gets a chance to lead. The advantage to this method is that it
gives attendees who aren't normally in leadership positions the opportunity to grow and practice
leadership in small ways. This can create additional job satisfaction. Also, if each member of the
group has the opportunity to hold others accountable to the ground rules, it often increases their
own personal commitment to those rules.

The disadvantages of a rotating meeting leader can be inconsistency in ground rule enforcement
and focus. You may also have people who don't want to lead, perhaps because it's contrary to
their personality. Also, a temporary group leader may not be as prepared as someone who leads
consistently. Finally, people may have a tendency to look to the normal manager or boss as the
leader, leaving an assigned meeting leader in an awkward situation.

Either option can work for your group provided you are committed to it and use it consistently.
Occasionally I hear the suggestion of a third option to have no leader for the meeting. Some are
reluctant to take charge of a meeting due to social pressure. Others feel that having a leader for
a meeting diminishes the role of everyone else in the room. Whether a lack of meeting
leadership happens by choice or by accident, it usually leads to chaotic, unproductive meetings.

Think of the leader as the helper for the meeting. It's their job to ensure the meeting is
successful. Leaders are most productive in meetings, or otherwise, when they work to serve
those they lead. Because of this, leadership should be welcomed, not discouraged. Take a
moment, either right now, or at the beginning of your next meeting, and determine what method
you'll use to ensure that every meeting has a leader.

Creating an agenda

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In the exercise files for this course I've provided an agenda template that you can use for your
meetings. Depending upon the meeting style you've chosen, some sections may not be
applicable to your needs. Feel free to adapt this agenda or create your own version as you see
fit. However, if you want to get going quickly, you can use this agenda exactly as is. Let's briefly
explore each element of this agenda example. First we'll explore the left hand side.

These are important guidelines to keep in mind while you're having your meeting. We're starting
here because, while this is the most important part of any meeting, it's often the most neglected.
At the top, the most important principle is the what, as in: What is the end result we want? For
example, at the end of each meeting, all participants will feel respected, valued, and have clarity
about future action steps, and so on.

Change this to suit your needs. Also, in the guidelines section you'll see why, as in: Why are we
holding this meeting? Who, as in: Who should attend this meeting? When, as in: How often
should we meet? How much, as in: How do we measure if the meeting was successful? Lastly,
with what, as in: What resources should every meeting attendee have on hand? Adapt all of
these to your unique meeting needs.

Now let's talk about the agenda steps themselves or the how. How should the meeting take
place? The first step is to begin on time. Second, the leader welcomes everyone. The leader
should help attendees feel welcome and comfortable when they come to the meeting. Third,
depending on the meeting style, there can be a brief training presentation taught either by the
leader or by someone the leader has designated.

This training should be only about three to five minutes and should either apply to a system that
people within the company should begin implementing or provide training on an essential skill
that applies to every attendee. Step four of the group meeting agenda is to have each person
quickly report on commitments they made in the last meeting. This is simply asking each person,
one by one, whether or not they did it. Each responds with a yes or no.

Next, you'll take the remaining time available, minus five minutes, and divide it equally among
the members. So, if there are 30 minutes remaining and there are five participants, each person
will have five minutes to speak. During the final five minutes, the leader or the note taker

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reviews and summarizes each person's commitments that they made during the meeting. Then
they'll also reconfirm the date and time of the next meeting.

The final step of the agenda is to end on time, or even better, early. Creating an agenda is
relatively simple. It's in following the agenda that the challenge comes. In the following videos
we'll cover how to make this agenda come to life.

Preparing brief training

For meetings that occur on a weekly or less frequent basis, it's helpful to offer some form of
training to your attendees. A brief training moment in weekly meetings helps everyone get on
the same page and develop their skills. If you're the meeting leader you may not necessarily be
the one that delivers the training each time. In fact, it's probably best to allow others a turn to
teach from time to time. If someone else is teaching, have them watch this video to help
prepare.

Now, it's not realistic to teach you everything about preparing training in just a few minutes. So
I'm going to give you single biggest shortcut that I've learned in preparing presentations of all
kinds. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle, then at the top left-hand side
write the word what, and at the top right-hand side write the word how. Preparing training is
simply a matter of balance between what; the skill or system that you're teaching, and how; the
method that you use to teach it to people.

If you have too much what meaning your covering too many concepts, your listeners will be
overwhelmed with information. Too much how, meaning using too many methods of sharing
your training and people just get lost in the method, but miss out on the message. First, decide
on the what. In a three to five minute training moment, you're only going to have time for one
simple concept. So choose carefully.

There are two options for deciding what to teach. The first is to provide training on the
implementation of a new system. The second is to provide training on an essential skill, universal
to all attendees. After you've decided on the what, you can determine the how. While there are

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infinite methods of how to teach something, here are three basic techniques that offer you some
variety. The first and perhaps easiest is to share a story.

Stories are simple and effective because they invite your listeners to imagine what's taking place.
A simple story can often illustrate your point better than telling team members what they should
do differently. The second method of teaching involves group participation. The greatest
teachers try not to do all of the talking, but instead invite their listeners to participate.
Participation moves your training from a dull lecture to energetic involvement.

A simple example includes make a group of three people and in 60 seconds agree on the two
best words to describe excellent customer service. Give specific time constraints for people to
perform activities. Otherwise, group discussions can take much longer than intended. The third
method of training is to work as a group to solve a problem. This encourages participation and
questions. Simply, state the problem and then ask group members for suggestions for
improvement.

For instance, you could ask what suggestions could you make to help improve our late delivery
shipments? This method is especially effective in a group because it gets buy-in from all the
members and provides perspectives from multiple people. Again, be cautious of the time that
you take and keep the comments brief. In summary, first decide what concept you will teach,
and then decide how you're going to teach it; either using stories, group participation or group
problem solving.

Later in the course I'll provide tips on how best to present what you've prepared.

Coming Prepared

You can help make the meeting effective for both yourself and others by coming prepared.
Coming prepared means more than just arriving at the meeting, listening and occasionally
talking. Let's explore five principles for coming prepared to meetings. First, bring your personal
calendar. Many times people will come to a meeting and find themselves unable to schedule

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things or commit to accomplishing things without being able to look at their calendars. So make
sure that you have your calendar at hand.

It's your time budget, and it will let you know how much time you have available to make
commitments. Second, bring a gathering point for taking notes. A gathering point is a
predetermined place where you put all the notes from your meeting. Typically, in a meeting
setting, this will be a physical or digital notepad. Create a system for yourself to indicate when
you've gathered an action item, such as putting a big open check box next to what you wrote
down.

Third, bring any action items that you agreed to complete in the previous meeting. In most
meetings you're likely to have one or more things you told others you would get done. Make sure
you're prepared to report back to the group on your commitments. Fourth, use a task reminders
list specific to each meeting. If you've completed my time management fundamentals course,
you'll be familiar with using a task reminders list for processed items.

You can also create a list for each type of meeting. For instance, any time that you have a task
or idea that you need to discuss in a project managers meeting, categorize your task reminders
using that label. Create similar list categories for all the group and one to one meetings that you
participate in regularly. When you come to the meeting bring that list, either via your laptop,
mobile device, or even a printed list. This will help you show up prepared with minimal review
prior to the meeting.

And finally, bring training materials if necessary. In most cases, only the leader, or training
presenter, will need to bring training materials. If that's you, you may want to email or hand out
related documents in advance, or just make sure that you bring all the materials that you need.
With just a few minutes of preparation prior to the meeting, you can attend feeling confident
that you're able to participate fully.

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 CHAPTER QUIZ

1. In which of the following situations should a proposed meeting be held?

a. When the meeting leader plans to use the meeting as an opportunity to delegate tasks.

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 b. When attending the meeting helps all attendees make a different to the organization's
bottom line.

c. When the information to be discussed in the meeting is about a few brief questions you
need answered.

d. When the necessary information is forthcoming.

2. What is an advantage of a manger rotating who leads the team meetings each
week?

a. It allows team members to experience consistent and ongoing team leadership.

b. It gives people who don't usually serve as leaders an opportunity to grow their
leadership skills.

c. It utilizes an established structure of reporting and accountability.

d. It guarantees that each leader is committed to upholding the meeting's ground rules.

3. What is the benefit of dividing the remaining time left in a meeting's agenda
between each participant?

a. all of the above

b. It allows each participant to go through their group task list.

c. It shows each participant that they have an equal voice.

d. Participants can make their own future commitments.

4. What item should a person bring to a meeting so that she or he is better equipped
to make commitments during the meeting?

a. paper and a pen for taking notes

b. a personal calendar

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 c. a document that will be discussed

d. a printout of a presentation

STARTING THE MEETING

Budgeting time

The first step on the agenda is to begin on time. It's helpful to view time like a budget. Stay
within your time budget, and you will be more productive and relaxed. Exceed your budget, and
you will be unproductive and more stressed. It's the meeting leader's responsibility to make sure
the group stays within the time budget. The template agenda provides some basic ideas on how
to allocate meeting time, which you can adjust as needed.

Let's look at how your meeting time could possibly be divided. For most meetings, the training
should be brief, five minutes at the most. This will require you to be well-prepared. Next, when
each person reports on the commitments they made in the last meeting, we want to keep things
concise, under five minutes in total if possible. The most fluid portion of your time budget deals
with time allocated to each attendee to be heard.

For example, let's say that you have a 60-minute meeting that ends at 11 o'clock, and you
complete the training and reporting by 10:15. This leaves you with 45 minutes remaining. First,
subtract five minutes from that to leave time for a wrap-up at the end. You now have 40 minutes
to divide among attendees. So if you have five participants in the meeting, including the meeting
leader, divide 40 by five, and you end up with eight minutes for each attendee.

Then, the meeting leader should set up a timer that repeats every eight minutes so that each
person knows exactly how much time they have. Let the timer be the enforcer of the time
budget rather than you as the individual. People are much more comfortable with the clock
beeping at them than with the leader saying, "It's time for you to stop talking." After setting your

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timer, begin with the first attendee. The leader can listen attentively to each person and
occasionally glance at the clock.

I recommend that you give each person a brief reminder one minute before their time is up. In
the beginning, people may be a little uncomfortable with the concept of being so careful with the
clock. They may feel it's restrictive. Typically though, by the third or fourth meeting conducted
this way, people understand and respect the clock. Sticking to your meeting time budget helps
everyone be heard, shows respect for everyone's time, and keeps meetings running smoothly.

Opening on a positive note

How you open the meeting is very important, as it has a great impact on the overall
effectiveness of the meeting. Everybody has some responsibility to open the meeting on a
positive note. However, the greatest responsibility rests with the meeting leader. So, I'll focus my
tips in this video with the leader in mind. Consider these five steps toward opening the meeting
on a positive note. Number one is to arrive early. Because part of the agenda involves starting
the meeting on time, arrive well in advance of the meeting.

I would say at least five minutes in advance. Be ready to go the moment everyone arrives.
Second, eliminate distractions. If you have a device that's on and may distract you, turn it off. If
there's music playing, turn it off. If your meeting area is not as tidy as it could be, take a few
moments to clean up and arrange the chairs. Make sure that any trash is thrown away.
Distractions, to any one of the five senses can get in the way of an effective meeting.

Removing these distractions increases the likelihood that people can stay focused during the
meeting. Third, greet people when they arrive. Ever had the experience of going to a meeting
where the leader is working on their computer when you walk in? What a missed opportunity.
Instead, establish a positive tone for your meeting by being ready to greet people warmly and
personally before the meeting gets started. Fourth, set the tone of the meeting through your

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example, the first words that you say and how you say them will set the tone for everything else
that takes place.

Be positive. Share some good news. For example, you could begin by saying something like, I
want to start by sharing some great feedback I got from a client yesterday. He sent me an email
and said that Janet went above and beyond for them last week. Finally, kick off the meeting by
reminding everyone of the purpose of this meeting. It could be as simple as thanks for coming,
we're here to coordinate details on Project XYZ, and make sure that everyone has the resources
they need.

From time to time, you may find it appropriate to review the ground rules. Repetition and
reminders are powerful tools, so don't be afraid to use them. Use these tips, and you'll start the
meetings on a positive note, and get everybody ready to participate and take action.

Presenting brief training

We've covered how to prepare a brief three to five minute training moment for the meeting. Now
it's time for you to teach what you prepared. Even if you don't feel that teaching or training other
people is your greatest strength, every person can be a teacher in their own way and can help
others grow. Let's explore some simple things you can do to make that training as effective as
possible. Tip number one is grab their attention. Begin with something that's positive,
interesting, and perhaps a little bit out of the ordinary.

Why? Well typically when someone comes into the meeting, their attention is all over the place.
You can think of it in terms of them looking up and down, to the sides, all over the place. They
may be thinking about what they were just working on, things that are going on in their personal
life, or the game that they saw on TV last night. You want something that pulls their attention
toward you. Not only will this help you train more effectively, but it will also help them transition
to the mindset of paying attention in the meeting.

Do something that is simple but attention-grabbing. The easiest way to do that is to use some
sort of visual aid. Hold up a picture or some object that relates to the training you're about to

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present. The second tip is to try to speak as little as possible. One way to think about this is to
imagine the phrase "their words" in big letters. Imagine the phrase "my words" in small letters.

This means the things meeting attendees say matter more than what you say. Give attendees an
opportunity to be heard, to speak, and to participate. When they're responding to your
questions, be respectful and pay full attention to them. This mindset supports the third tip: allow
attendees to discover for themselves. Use group discussion. Compare these two differences in
teaching something.

Method one: I tell the attendees, "We need to listen to our customers." Method two: I ask
attendees, "How can we do a better job of listening to our customers?" by asking a question
rather than giving a solution, you'll help attendees learn and internalize more. The greatest
teachers I've seen ask students questions and give them time to think about their answers and
respond rather than dominating the discussion by doing all the talking.

The final tip: keep it brief. At most, you should train for five minutes. Stay within or under that
time. The attendees know the agenda and they know the maximum amount of time that you
have to teach. Every word that you say beyond that time diminishes what you said before. When
you reach the end of your allotted time, no matter where you are, just stop, finish your
sentence, and allow the meeting to continue.

By doing that, you will gain the respect of those that you teach because you demonstrated that
you respect their time. By training in a way that respects and involves meeting attendees, you'll
make it easier for them to internalize your message and feel committed to take action.

Following up on commitments

After the brief training is complete, it's time to report on commitments. If you've been following
the agenda I provided, attendees will have committed to action items at the conclusion of the
previous meeting. We now want to receive reports on the status of those commitments from all
attendees. This process is actually very simple. The leader, using the minutes from the previous
meeting, reads through the commitments each person made and asks simply, "Did you do this?"
If the answer is yes, then the leader can provide a brief response like "Good job" or "Thank you."
But what if the answer is no? The leader should then ask something like, "What got in the way of

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completing that?" or "What obstacle did you encounter?" This is much more effective than asking
a why question such as "Why didn't you do this?" Why is a very strong word and often carries
with it the assumption of personal blame.

We're not looking to shame people. Instead, we're trying to find solutions to help people get
their work done. By substituting what stood in the way for why, you are leaving open the
possibility that many different reasons could have kept the person from completing their
assigned task. Regardless of the answer, the leader should avoid getting involved in an extended
discussion about what stopped the person from completing their commitment.

We just want a brief explanation of what happened. If this explanation generates a topic that the
group or the leader wishes to discuss further with all attendees, then add it to your task list to be
discussed later. If they failed to complete the task, get a new commitment to a date and time for
when it will be complete. Hopefully, they'll complete it the second time, now that they know you
will be holding them accountable.

If you notice a repeated pattern of someone not completing their commitments, you'll likely want
to follow up with that person in a one on one meeting, not in a group meeting. The one on one
meeting is a great time for a manager to assist employees in following through on commitments
or deal with deeper personal issues that may be influencing their lack of follow-through.
Regardless of their responses, finish the follow-up portion with brief, specific, and sincere praise.

Look for something that each individual attendee is doing well and comment on it. By always
giving brief, sincere praise, you communicate that you are aware of their successes. This
encourages meeting attendees' willingness to welcome your insight and become more
forthcoming about errors when they happen. After getting a brief report on last meeting's action
items and making note of any new commitments, keep the meeting moving along.

By taking this approach, you'll improve the completion rate of commitments and make meetings
more meaningful.

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 CHAPTER QUIZ

1. How can a leader effectively budget time in a meeting to ensure that everyone is
heard?

a. Allow each attendee to talk as much as he or she wants, provided the meeting ends on
time.

b. Save training for the end of the meeting, and only including it if there is time left.

c. Give each attendee an equal number of minutes to speak based on the time remaining.

d. Set a timer to go off at the meeting's scheduled end.

2. Which action would best help a meeting leader eliminate distractions?

a. Set up a refreshment area with snacks and beverages.

b. Arrange the meeting area so that it is organized and tidy.

c. Greet attendees warmly as they enter the meeting area.

d. Open the meeting by sharing positive feedback from a client.

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3. A meeting leader asks an attendee if he completed an assigned task, and the
attendee says, "No." How should the meeting leader respond?

a. What obstacle did you encounter?

b. Okay, I can assign it to someone else.

c. Why didn't you do it?

d. Please complete it before our next meeting.

DURING THE MEETING

Being heard

One of the most important, and occasionally challenging aspects of holding a group meeting is
making sure that everyone has a voice. We want every attendee to have the opportunity to
participate and be involved. This will contribute to attendees feeling that meetings are worth

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their time. Now we've already covered how you can divide the remaining time evenly between
the attendees, so once attendees begin speaking, it's the meeting leader's responsibility to
ensure that everyone else is attentive and listening.

If one attendee is speaking out of turn when it's another attendee's time to speak, the leader
should gently suggest that they listen. One way to do that without calling out someone by name
is saying let's give Susan our full attention. Usually, that's enough to help attendees stop
whatever side conversations or activities that are distracting them. It's also the meeting leader's
responsibility to make sure that the person uses only the amount of time allocated to them, and
that they actually use it.

Occasionally someone will be quieter or more reserved. Don't make the mistake of believing that
they have nothing to say. Give them space and the freedom to think, and gently encourage them
to express themselves. Getting everyone to participate is not just the meeting leader's
responsibility. Each attendee must use their time wisely when it is given to them. Prior to the
meeting, every participant should bring their group task list, the list of things that they want to
discuss during that meeting.

If you find that you have a long list, you'll need to either move very quickly through that list, or
decide to hold topics for future meetings. Try to limit your agenda to items that apply to the
group as a whole. Remember, you only need to cover those items where collaboration or
coordination with the group is necessary. It's wise to have private one-on-one conversations, or
even exchange emails on topics that don't effect the entire group.

If you'd like to brainstorm ideas briefly with other members of the group, now would be the time
to do this. Ask for brief responses to a specific question. Listen respectfully to each suggestion.
Write down what they say, and say thank you for each idea, regardless of whether or not you
agree with it. After the meeting is over, when you're processing, you can either discard ideas or
contact people to discuss those ideas in greater detail.

Also keep in mind that it may not be necessary to use your full time slot. If you can say
everything that needs to be said in a shorter amount of time, go ahead and gift your extra time
to the next person. No one has ever complained about someone else using less than their

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allotted time, or about a meeting getting out early. Finally, if, as you're speaking, someone
makes a commitment to do something, make a note to yourself to follow up with that person.

Even though there's a note taker and a leader in the room who will make notes of that
commitment, it's ultimately your responsibility to follow up with someone who commits to items
that matter to you. When everyone has a voice, and everyone uses their time wisely, meetings
become a more valuable use of time.

Giving and taking feedback

Through the course of a meeting, sooner or later, someone will have an alternative viewpoint or
have feedback to offer. When that happens, there are a few suggestions to keep in mind to
ensure the meeting moves along and that the feedback is positive. The first is to focus your
comments on actions and results. All too often, it's easy to assume the motives behind what
someone says or get caught up in personality differences. For a group meeting it's important to
leave the personality, assumptions, and emotions out of the equation.

Focus simply on the actions, meaning the steps that people are taking and the results that
they're getting from those actions. What did their actions achieve? If you focus your comments
on the actions and results, the likelihood of emotion getting mixed into the feedback becomes
very low. The second idea is to use softening words that leave room for the possibility that you
could be wrong. I also call this the Ben Franklin principle.

In his autobiography, one of the US founders, Benjamin Franklin, recounted how he had the
habit of stating his opinions very strongly. A friend took him aside and said that by saying the
same things but with softening words, people would be more likely to listen to his opinion. From
that point forward, Franklin made a personal commitment to stop using words like certainly and
undoubtedly and replace them with I imagine and it appears to me.

For example, rather than saying, "It absolutely must be the color green," try saying, "To me, it
seems like green "would be a good choice." Not only will that make others more receptive to
your point of view, but it will also give you the opportunity to correct yourself if it turns out later

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that your opinion was wrong. The third suggestion is to be open. Be receptive. When someone
shares something with you that appears to be constructive criticism or even positive feedback,
avoid responding to it immediately.

Say thank you, make a note about it, and think about it later. As you pause for reflection, you
may find out that what they say is true. Or, even if you don't agree with their perspective, you'll
be able to craft a response later when you're calm and relaxed. Finally, my fourth suggestion is
for the meeting leader in particular. If a heated discussion grows, the recurring group meeting is
not the time and place to have that discussion.

Usually, it's a better idea to schedule a separate meeting to deal with specific heated issues.
While you want to avoid excessive meetings, holding a special meeting for an emotionally
charged issue can be a wise choice. A separate, free-form meeting will give you plenty of time to
cover every opinion and give people the freedom to relax and not feel that they're under the
pressure of the clock.

Follow these four suggestions when it comes to giving and receiving feedback and your meetings
will help all attendees feel valued and appreciated.

Keeping meetings productive and on topic

To keep meetings moving smoothly and on time, it's very important that we keep the meeting
on-topic. Keeping meetings on-topic is not just the meeting leader's responsibility. It's every
attendees' responsibility. However, the leader is the one who will most likely need to make small
corrections if people get off course. It's natural that a meeting will occasionally drift off-topic or
off course. When that happens, just follow a few simple tips to get things back on-topic.

First, if someone gets off-topic or is disruptive, avoid singling them out by name. Instead, direct
your comments to the group as a whole. For instance, if someone multitasks during the
discussion, say, let's all make sure we're not multitasking. Or if someone's talking becomes
disruptive, just remind everyone that we want to give attendees our attention. A simple reminder
to the group is usually enough, especially if you have established ground rules.

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This leads me to my second tip. Refer to the ground rules often. If an attendee does something
that's keeping the meeting from being productive, again, rather than singling them out or talking
about their specific behavior, go back to the ground rules. For instance, if you feel that someone
is holding back, you can refer to the ground rules by saying, we've all agreed to be open and
share our thoughts fully. Let's all speak candidly. And finally, let the timer keep things on track.

Use an app on your phone or a simple kitchen timer. A loud alarm makes it easier for the timer
to be the enforcer of the time budget, not the leader. If you're the leader and someone
continues past the buzzer, just say, let's make sure that we give the next person their full time.
And if you're the speaker when the timer buzzes, quickly finish your sentence, and then say, I'm
done for now, and allow someone else to start speaking.

In my experience, when people understand and agree in advance to the ground rules, they are
respectful of the time, and focus on the work at hand. Add in the occasional gentle reminder
from the meeting leader, and you can keep things on track.

Taking minutes

Ever heard of the concept of taking minutes in the meeting? The idea is that one person acts as
a scribe and summarizes comments and points covered in the meeting. To some, this may seem
like an outdated or unnecessary concept, and occasionally, it's not necessary for some styles of
meetings. However I have found taking minutes can be a very effective tool to make sure that
everyone is on the same page, both during and after the meeting.

First, you'll want to designate someone as the note-taker. You can rotate this responsibility,
however, I have found that there are some people best suited for this. These individuals usually
have a high attention to detail and write quickly and accurately. The meeting leader can select
the person they feel best-suited to taking minutes. Next, to make the task simple for that note-
taker, I have provided a suggested outline for taking minutes.

Use this outline as-is, or adapt it to your situation. At the top of the form, you'll find places to
indicate the leader, the note-taker, and the date and time of the meeting. When it comes to the

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note-taking itself, I recommend the note-taker focuses notes on actions rather than trying to
cover each word a person says. Listen for and take notes about doing, changing, and making
things happen both inside and outside the group.

For example, when summarizing the training portion of the meeting, you might write one
sentence about what the training was, and then add one or two bullet points about actions that
attendees can take as a result. It's especially important to make notes of the commitments
people make. For instance, if during the meeting, I commit to Bonnie that I'm going to deliver a
document by next Tuesday, then make a note. Dave will deliver the document to Bonnie by next
Tuesday.

You'll use these meeting minutes in two ways. At the end of the meeting, the note-taker will use
the minutes to remind everyone of their commitments. Then after the meeting, the note-taker
can send an email with the notes to everyone who was in attendance, or even was absent. That
way, everyone has a chance to review, again, what was covered and if anyone missed the
meeting, they can also feel like they caught the key points of what was discussed.

When you receive your copy of the minutes, take a moment and review them carefully. In
particular, pay close attention to any time your name is mentioned, especially whenever it says
that you made a commitment to someone else. If for some reason you see something that the
note-taker missed, and you feel it's important that every attendee be clear about, send a
message back to the note-taker, and to the meeting leader with your suggestion.

That gives them an opportunity to send out the clarification to all other attendees if necessary.
Keep note-taking as simple as possible. The end result we want is to help people follow through
on their commitments and strengthen the communication between attendees.

Closing the meeting

The final step in the meeting agenda is to review everyone's action items. Throughout the
meeting, different people may have committed to accomplish certain things by a certain time.
Usually at this point, the leader will turn the time over to the note-taker, and ask them for a
summary of the commitments. The note-taker then summarizes each person's commitments

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using who, what, and when. In other words, who made the commitment, what they committed
to do, and when they committed to accomplish it, it's that simple.

Go through each person on the agenda, look for the commitments they made and say, Alex
committed to deliver the files to Lisa by Tuesday afternoon. Who, what, when. As the note-taker
reads through the list, each attendee should pay close attention and make sure they agreed to
the commitments that are being reviewed. They also need to make sure that they're put those
commitments into one of their gathering points. A gathering point is a designated place where
you write the action items down and then look at them later to decide when to follow through on
them.

After reviewing everyone's action items, it's time for the leader to close the meeting. The leader
does this by simply confirming the time of the next meeting, the location of the meeting, and
also confirming any additional meetings. For instance, if a controversial topic needs to be
discussed in greater detail outside of the regular meeting schedule, the leader will remind
everyone of that special meeting and make sure they have it on their calendar. And just a
reminder, always end on time or even better, end early.

When you consistently end meetings at the scheduled time, people will become accustomed to
the idea that time matters, and that how they use their time during the meeting is important.
They'll be more respectful of the meeting because they know that their time is valued. Respect
everyone else's time, and they'll respect your time.

CHAPTER QUIZ

1. A meeting attendee starts to interrupt the person who is speaking. Which is the
best way for the team leader to remind attendees to respect each other?

a. "Wait until it's your turn to talk, please."

b. "Carly, why don't you let Sam finish his thought."

c. "Let's give the person who has the floor our full attention."

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 d. "Remember, we don't interrupt."

2. Which of the following is NOT a good example of ensuring a meeting stays on

topic?

a. Using a timer to stay on track.

b. Voice redirective comments to the entire group

c. Refer back to the meeting's agreed-upon ground rules.

d. Saying a multitasking attendee's name and telling them to stop.

3. What should a meeting leader do after completing a review of everyone's action

items?

a. Open the floor for final questions.

b. Quiz each person about what is on his or her agenda in the upcoming days.

c. Ask the note taker for a summary of each attendee's commitments.

d. Confirm when and where any related future meetings will be held.

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 AFTER THE MEETING

Completing action items

Now what? The meeting's over and you're back at your desk. What should you do? You'll very
likely come away from most meetings with action items, tasks or projects that you need to work
on. Part of the success of future meetings will depend upon your success in completing these
action items. If you can come to every meeting and show the other participants that you keep
your commitments and meet your deadlines, then you'll earn their trust.

They'll learn they can count on you and they'll likely give you greater respect in the workplace.
Review each action item and answer the three what, when, where questions I teach in time
management fundamentals. What is the next step? When will it be done? And where is its home?
As in the home for any materials related to this task. Schedule time to complete the tasks on
your calendar and stick to that schedule, and when you follow through and complete your
commitments, report back.

Send an email or a note to the meeting leader, maybe even the note taker, and let them know
that it's done. Now, if you completed the task just before the next meeting, of course you can
report back in the meeting itself, but it's usually helpful to other people to let them know the
moment you've completed a commitment. Every time you do that, it relieves a small burden, so
they don't have to wonder if you followed through.

Complete your commitments and those you work with will feel a great sense of trust that
whatever they give you, you'll do what you said you will do when you said you would do it.

Following up on action items delegating to others

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When you participate in meetings you'll very likely be asking other people to help you out. While
we hope and expect that others will complete those assignments on time, it's still your
responsibility to follow up with them and hold them accountable for their commitment. Keep this
rule in mind. Whenever you delegate something, create a waiting for in task for yourself. Think
of delegation like a yo-yo, whenever someone else commits to do something for you, you should
also create an action for yourself to remember that you're waiting for them to do it.

Create a reminder with the time and date they committed to get that to you. You can create
reminders for yourself in your calendar or on your task reminders list. When the reminder pops
up follow up with that person and ask them if the item is complete. If you haven't heard from
them yet, simply send them a message along the lines of, I have a reminder that I was waiting
for that report, have you had a chance to get to it yet? Or, when the reminder pops up, if you
know they've already completed the item you could send them a message such as thank you for
getting that report done, it makes my job easier.

Little complements like that not only help everyone feel better, but they reinforce a culture of
follow-through in the workplace. Another way to follow up on delegated items that have flexible
deadlines is to add a follow up reminder to a group or one-on-one meeting task list. For
instance, if Alice commits to me that she'll send out a series of emails in time for our next one-
on-one meeting, then all I really need to do is create a reminder on my one-on-one Alice
meeting list to follow up with her about those emails.

Then, when I go to the meeting, I can scan through the list, and ask her about any of her
commitments. Remember, a delegate out is always a waiting for in. Whenever you ask someone
else to do something for you be sure to consistently follow up with them. This will cultivate a
workplace culture of making and keeping commitments.

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 CHAPTER QUIZ

1. Which situation best illustrates a person who effectively follows up with others in
the workplace?

a. A team member agrees to perform a particular task at the request of the team leader.

b. A manager gives an employee a new set of responsibilities.

c. A supervisor meets with an employee to make sure an action was successful.

d. A manager clears her or his schedule to meet with a client.

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 CONCLUSION

Next steps

We've explored a framework you can use in any company to make meetings more productive
and focused on results. If you follow the suggestions of this course, the effectiveness of your
meetings should improve. However, we want to make sure that your meetings are getting better
each and every time. The best way to do that is to establish a schedule to continually reassess
the effectiveness of your meetings. Perhaps once per quarter, use part of your meeting to ask
each attendee the question, "Are these meetings effective?" You could possibly do this during
the training portion of the meeting.

Also, consider the followup question, "What could we do "to improve the effectiveness of these
meetings?" By regularly checking in, you and your team can make small improvements and
adjustments over time. I'd also recommend that every meeting attendee creates a schedule to
regularly review this course. Review this course perhaps twice per year and you'll sharpen your
meeting skills and pick up on things that you may have missed the first time around.

Remember, meetings exist to serve you and your workplace, not the other way around. Try to
regularly improve the quality of your meetings and you'll see them become productive and
results-oriented. Thank you for watching and happy meeting.

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 CHAPTER QUIZ

1. What is the best way to reevaluate meetings and make sure they continue to get
better?

a. Periodically, ask the attendees' opinions on the effectiveness of the meetings.

b. Consistently enforce the meeting ground rules.

c. Create a meeting environment where people feel comfortable speaking honestly.

d. Follow up with attendees regarding the commitments they made.

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