In offices around the world, people yawn, gaze at the clock and day-dream during meetings. Meetings are seen as boring time-wasters that keep us from doing our actual jobs. Most people would jump for joy if meetings were wiped from the schedule altogether. There’s only one issue – meetings ARE important, at least when they’re run effectively. Meetings are the only time when the team gets together. When run efficiently, these meetings give everyone the opportunity to brainstorm, ask questions, address issues and improve the business. Rather than scrapping meetings altogether, the best option is to maximize the outcome. “How do you run an effective status meeting?“. In this article, we’ll discuss 10 practices to maximize your office meetings!
What Makes A Status Meeting Bad?
We’ve all spent time in bad meetings. If status meetings have been driving you crazy, you aren’t alone. Here are a few statistics surrounding meetings, courtesy of Cornerstone Dynamics:
- Agendas Shorten Meetings By Up To 80%
- About 1/3rd Of Meetings Actually USE Agendas
- Almost 75% Of People Multi-Task During Meetings
- Most Meetings Are 30-60 Minutes
- Despite Huge Strides In Technology, Time Spend In Meetings Has Increased About 10% Every Year Since 2000
Before we discuss how to run an effective status meeting, let’s first think about what makes meetings a drag in the first place?
- Meetings Can Happen Randomly, Sometimes With Little Notice
- Questions Are Asked That We Don’t Have Answers Ready For
- Many People Sit Silently For The Majority Of The Meeting
- People Run Back-And-Forth Between The Meeting & Their Offices To Grab Documents For Reference
- People Can Lose Time Driving To/From Meetings
- Meetings Go On Tangents, Discussing Irrelevant Info Or Spending Way Too Much Time On Pointless Topics
- Meetings Just Take Too Long In General
- People Don’t Get The Chance To Voice Their Own Ideas Or Concerns
- No One Remembers The Details Of The Meeting Soon After It’s Over…
- People Forget All Of The Things They’re Supposed To Do And Don’t End Of Doing Everything That Was Discussed.
Obviously, nobody wants to waste a portion of their work week on a bad meeting. Let’s discuss some ways to make sure the bullet points above never happen again.
How Do You Run An Effective Status Meeting?
In order to run progress meetings efficiently, it pays to plan ahead. Here are 10 must-have ingredients in an effective status meeting!
- Set A Date & Time That Stays The Same Every Week.
- Send Out An Agenda At Least One Day Ahead Of Time.
- Give Each Team Member Status Updates & Topics To Be Responsible For.
- Bring A Laptop To The Meeting That Can Display Related Documents On TV Screens Or Projectors.
- If Getting Everyone In One Place Is Difficult, Use Skype Or Video Calling To Save Time.
- Watch The Clock During The Meeting To Stay On Track.
- Don’t Drift Too Far From The Agenda. If A Discussion Is Going Longer Than Expected…
- Set Aside A Portion Of The Meeting For Asking Questions, Voicing Concerns & Pitching Ideas.
- Take Minutes Of What Is Discussed, Who Is Responsible For Doing What & The Goals For The Next Meeting.
- Follow Up With Each Team Member On Progress A Couple Days After The Meeting.
Here’s a little more information on each of these methods if you’re interested!
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1. Set A Date & Time That Stays The Same Every Week
The timeslot for a status meeting shouldn’t change. Meetings should be held on the same day every week, during the same time period.
Keeping the timeslot consistent helps people plan their week and also keeps everyone accountable to the updates and answers they’re expected to have.
It’s best to send out reminders or calendar appointments via email, so everyone gets reminded of the meeting too.
2. Send Out An Agenda At Least One Day Ahead Of Time
As we stated earlier, meetings without an agenda are mostly a waste of time.
Meeting agendas are a combination of the prior meeting’s minutes (see no. 9) and any new updates.
Sending out an agenda helps each staff member be prepared for the meeting. When everyone comes prepared, the item is discussed, the next actions are assigned and accounted for and the topics is DONE. Next!
Ideally, agendas will note who is responsible for each item. It’s even better if the agenda sticks to a specific format each week.
3. Give Each Team Member Status Updates & Topics To Be Responsible For
If all we need to do is show up to the meeting, we probably won’t spend much time thinking about it beforehand. If anything, we’ll probably spend the time dreading it.
What about meetings where you’re required to give answers and updates to the entire team? We’re suddenly a lot more prepared because we know we’ll be held accountable.
This is the magic formula for a successful meeting.
When everyone is responsible for specific tasks, meetings will produce a lot more useful content.
4. Bring A Laptop To The Meeting That Can Display Related Documents On TV Screens Or Projectors
Modern meetings must use the power of technology to maximize the return on everyone’s invested time. Using a laptop to display documents is a key way to avoid confusion.
In the construction industry, we often reference a specific plan drawing, technical document or sketch. We also show pictures of job site progress or a particular piece of the project.
Having the laptop on hand allows us to look at these documents right away, not have to run around printing out drawings or emailing pictures back and forth.
5. If Getting Everyone In One Place Is Difficult, Use Skype Or Video Calling To Save Time
Do you work in an industry that requires flexibility? If so, do you have having to spend hours on the road mid-day just to get to a meeting?
I can relate. Working in the greater NYC construction industry, we’d have projects in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Long Island & in Westchester County (north of the city). To get to our office from a job site mid-day or vice-versa, it’d take an hour or more with traffic.
Video conference calls are saviors in this respect. Skype allows for video conferencing, and services like GoToMeeting allow for screen sharing if documents or photos need to be seen by all.
Why waste time to cross physical space? Time is money.
6. Watch The Clock During The Meeting To Stay On Track
The number one complaint about status meetings is the amount of time they take.
This is why meetings must be held to a specific timeframe. What happens when half of the items on the agenda never get discussed? Things get messy.
In addition to making an agenda, it helps to assign a target timeframe to each portion of the agenda. Something like the following goes a long way:
- 09:00am – 09:20am – Review Last Week’s Minutes & Discuss Updates
- 09:20am – 09:45am – Discuss New Items & Assignments
- 09:45am – 10:00am – Open Time For Q&A, Discussions, Concerns Etc.
The clock is our friends when it comes to effective status meetings.
7. Don’t Drift Too Far From The Agenda
Similar to the above, effective status meetings do not include random chatter or ‘over-discussing’ topics. The agenda must be followed and timeframes respected.
Sure, status meetings aren’t always militaristic, but they also waste quite a lot of time. Topics can be discussed for a couple of minutes, but then it’s time to move on.
If a topic needs to be addressed further but the meeting is going slow, save it for the next step.
8. Set Aside A Portion Of The Meeting For Asking Questions, Voicing Concerns & Pitching Ideas
Everyone’s busy. We all have our own concerns to worry about – both inside and outside the workplace. When several people decide to get together for a meeting, it takes effort and planning. It’s best to not waste these chances.
This is why status meetings should allow for SOME flexibility. Provided that all of the key items are discussed first, it makes sense to leave time for open discussion, ideas and concerns.
By talking about these items when everyone’s present, it gives everybody the opportunity to provide instant feedback. Rather than swirling around in office chitchat or an endless email thread, ideas and concerns can instantly be addressed when there’s time set aside to do so.
9. Take Minutes Of What Is Discussed, Who Is Responsible For Doing What & The Goals For The Next Meeting
There’s an old expression in project management (I’m sure other businesses, too): “If there aren’t any minutes, you didn’t have a meeting“.
This is because people forget! We all have our own concerns and focuses – if there’s an idea discussed in a meeting or somebody is assigned a task, the meeting was a waste of time if the next step isn’t taken.
This is why meeting minutes must be taken. Minutes should include the following information for each item discussed:
- What the next step is
- Who needs to take the next step
- When they must do it by
- What the expected outcome of the next step is
- Any relevant information related to the task
When minutes are sent out following a meeting, everyone has a documented, written copy of exactly what was discussed. This makes confusion and missed items a lot less common.
10. Follow Up With Each Team Member On Progress A Couple Days After The Meeting
Last but not least – “the follow up”.
The meeting has concluded, minutes were sent out and a couple of days have passed. Rather than wait until the next meeting, it makes sense to follow up with individuals on the progress they’ve made.
By following up on key information, it helps move the entire operation along a little further. People will get used to follow ups happening more frequently and make progress sooner.
In Summary
Meetings are largely a waste of time, but they don’t need to be. In fact, by practicing a few of the techniques discussed in this article, meetings can be productive, engaging and even time-saving. If you came to this article wondering “How do you run an effective status meeting?”, I truly hope you’re satisfied with the information we’ve shared here. Thanks for reading!
