The worst thing any leader could do is miss opportunities for learning. Being among more seasoned leaders in a series of meetings this week taught me a lot. Meetings are only worth what they produce.
Justification for spending time and other valuable resources for meetings is when meetings help move you closer to goals and vision. One of the ways of identifying ineffectiveness of meetings is how often items keep recurring with little or no progress.
The results of every meeting you attend must be measurable. While the results are important in evaluating the meeting this should not be the only lens through which meetings are evaluated.
The valuable lesson I learned courtesy of some senior leaders: Not only measure the product of meetings but the process.
The process of meetings has impact on the outcome. At the end of every meeting it is important to verify that everyone understood things the same. One of the variables teams will execute their responsibility beyond the meeting, is their understanding of their responsibilities from the meetings.
At the end of each meeting critique the process of the meeting. Engage with everyone in the meeting in determining:
Worked
Each person needs to state what worked for him or her in the meeting. It could be a tool used in the meeting or specific approach.
Planning
A great question our learning process facilitator asked us was, “if you’re to plan the next, or similar meeting, how would you plan it?” This question seems base but it is far from it. If answered well can help you identify ways to lift the game of your meetings.
Pre-meeting preparations have great impact on meetings and what they ought to achieve. I don’t need to emphasise more.
How Can I?
Another thing every person in the team needs to articulate is one thing they could do to make future meetings greater. Too many overlook the impact of their lack of involvement in meetings. The stakes are too high for you not to be involved.
Your involvement, or lack of it could be the difference between success and failure of your enterprise. It doesn’t matter whether where you feature on your organisation’s chart, you have the power to bring it down or lift its game to the next level.
Point
Assess the meeting itself not only the results of the meeting. Pay careful attention to the process of the meeting during and after the meeting. Interrogate every process and tool in your meetings. They can be easily forgotten and they can have grave consequences on the output of your meetings and the foundation of the demise of your vision.
I had to share this because of the impression it made.