Do You Lead Non-Productive Meetings?
By: Darryl Brooks
Tags: Business, Leadership, Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Teamwork

I recently read an excellent and eye-opening article by former president Barack Obama. You can find the LINK below. It was eye-opening because it discussed his decision-making process. For me, it wasn’t the process so much as the number and level of decisions he and any sitting president is faced with all day, every day. I have to decide whether to update my software or hold out for a new computer while he is deciding whether to send 30,000 young men into a hostile country. It gave me a lot of perspective.

But, the thing I came away with was almost a side note where he discussed staff meetings. He realized that some of his senior female staffers had stopped talking in meetings. Rather than ignore the problem, he faced it head-on and resolved the issue. They were some of his most important advisors, and he wanted to hear what they had to say.

In my forty years of attending meetings, I rarely found that sort of action to be the case. The problem is that most people, including those running the meetings, feel that meetings are a waste of time. Rather than addressing the core problem and making them a more valuable use of everyone’s time, people just want the sessions to be as short as possible.

So, in their eyes, everyone that doesn’t speak is contributing to that goal.

But, it’s the wrong goal. As the quarterback, you have picked up the ball, turned around, and headed the wrong way. You are going to lose the game by trying to make the game as short as possible.

Stop doing that.

That’s the wrong way to go. If that is the best you can do, admit the meetings are a waste of time and cancel them.

But meetings can and should be a valuable resource, a time of sharing ideas and solving problems. I know, crazy talk, right? Over the years, we have allowed meetings to deteriorate to being a waste of time until that is the accepted norm.

Stop doing that.

First, understand that you are paying these people for their time, so stop wasting it and the company’s money. But not by not halting the meetings, or allowing people who could be valuable resources not to attend.

Do it by listening.

Of course, first, you have to get them talking. This will take some time and effort but will be worth it in the end. You are going to have to reverse years of negative thinking about meetings. You will have to make people believe that you are listening and that you value their input.

As I developed the idea for this article, I was reminded of two pivotal meetings in my career.

The first was during a weekly staff meeting that I had, unfortunately, talked myself into. I came to regret it later, but it was in that very first one that I came to respect the owner. There was the constant bickering between sales and operations over some procedure. The owner let it run for a while. Then he stopped them and asked everyone around the room, including me, the head of I.T., for our opinions. Finally, he turned to the two managers who were arguing and said, “You two go to lunch and work this out. If you haven’t agreed by the time we get back, I’ll make the decision, based on input from the other managers.” I thought that was a great way to handle it, but as it turns out, that was an exception.

In another job a few years later, I was at one of my first staff meetings. There was an argument about which service to subscribe to for solving a particular problem. As it turns out, everyone agreed that the problem didn’t really exist, but we needed to spend tens of thousands of dollars proving to our clients that we had pursued every avenue to save them money.

I went back around the table, quizzing the department heads that this particular problem never actually occurred, but there was a perception that it did, and one of these services would help us prove it to our clients. I suggested that rather than spend all that money to solve a non-existent problem, why don’t we just guarantee it wouldn’t happen. If it did, we would pay for it out of our own pocket.

The owner of the company was mortified. “That could cost us a fortune if the problem happens.” But everyone just agreed that it couldn’t happen. “But what if it does?” “Again, everyone just said it couldn’t happen, but if it did, then the cost would still be much less than you want to spend on a service proving it didn’t.” That just confused her, and my idea was shot down. Everyone else at the meeting just stared at their non-existent notes and let me twist in the wind.

That was the only time I stepped outside my little box to make a suggestion. As the years went by and meetings came and went, I noticed no one else was willing to rock the boat either. Eventually, nothing happened at the meetings, and they would stop happening. Problem solved? Not really.

Business meetings have come to be synonymous with wasting time, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you are a business owner or manager who hosts your staff’s meetings, you have the power to fix this. And it begins with listening. Whatever the problem is, get input from all of your managers. Make sure they understand that you are genuinely listening to them. Thank each of them for their input and then make a decision based on that input. Even if you think it’s the wrong decision, the benefit from allowing your managers to feel as if they are involved with something will reap rewards down the road.

Here’s an idea I stole from IBM. Don’t tell them; I don’t want my computer to lock up on me. Hold a contest with your staff. It could be monthly, but quarterly would probably make more sense. Each quarter, every manager submits an idea to save the company money. You pick the best one and implement it. And here’s the kicker. That manager gets a bonus equal to 25% of the annual savings their idea generates. The definitive win-win.

Get your staff involved in your meetings and make them feel they are contributing something. Otherwise, you are truly wasting time.