Let’s talk about meetings – we can do this better.

It is often an accepted fact of student affairs and academic life that we spend a significant amount of time in meetings. It is not uncommon to spend most of the day in meetings. We lead, attend and participate. In an effort to promote collaboration we invite others across the university and our departments to join us. At times the meeting magic is ignited – new ideas are born, a direction for growth becomes clear, and everyone leaves energized and ready to hit the ground running.  But not every meeting is that way. When we are feeling buried by a meeting avalanche, it can feel like there is no space for “work” to get done. 

Leading meetings can be equally challenging. How do we create spaces that operate under the principles of creativity, accountability and student focused work? A senior colleague of mine once shared a financial perspective in this. If you add up the salary and benefits of everyone who is in the room and divide it by the number of hours in a work year, you arrive at the “hourly” wage. If we add all the “hourly wages” if the attendees in the room for an hour meeting, it is valuable to consider if the amount of work being done is worth the amount of money the university departments spend on various meetings.

In my professional practice there are certain meetings that I view as building blocks towards effective rapport, collaboration, and supportive staff relationships.  These are investments in the future and in the staff we have.

I wanted to offer a few suggestions that have worked for me in managing the meeting avalanches and becoming an effective meeting facilitator. I think about the following topics when I schedule and plan various meetings I lead

Purpose – it is important for me to consider the purpose of the meeting. When I am invited to one I often ask to see what the agenda items will be. If that question does not seem appropriate for the person who called the meeting, I ask what I can prepare to be most prepared for the meeting.  In meetings I lead I create a goal based agenda. The participants are asked to come up with measurable action steps to complete on a mutually agreed upon timeline.

 If a meeting is focused on brainstorming or solving an issue, I share all the relevant background information with the participants prior to the meeting, so everyone is prepared and we do not have to spend time reading as a group. I think it is  important to be sensitive to the  feel of the meeting as much as the content. If it is feeling stale, change the direction – groundbreaking ideas rarely come from a disengaged room.

Participants – in meeting that I lead I ask the participants to come prepared with reports, specific suggestions and other “homework” agreed upon previously. I ask my staff to take a lead on tasks and projects, thus, a lot of times, I am not the one who talks during our meetings – the staff are. I genuinely believe that we work with creative, interesting, talented staff members and the best thing we can do is to create a platform for them to share their best – a well-executed meeting can contribute to that goal.

I also highly recommend a purposeful electronics policy in meetings.  I think it is important to use our resources well, and if I look at a room and only hear the sound of my voice and the clicking of the keyboards, that is a sign that another form of participation is needed.

I frequently use more than one mode of participation. I ask staff to work in pairs and in groups and at times generate ideas individually to later share with a large group. This creates a lot of buy in and shared trust. This also acknowledges and encourages different learning and participation styles we have. Not everyone comfortable or able to share in a large group and it is the job of a meeting facilitator to create opportunities for all staff to share their brilliant ideas.

Punctuality – meetings start on time. I once heard a speaker say that they started meetings on time, even if they were the only person in the room. I was impressed, and while I have never had to do that, I do start on time and set this as a hard expectation. Equally important, I end meetings on time. This issue for me is closely connected with showing those I meet with that I respect them and their time deeply. Because I do, I end meetings on time and do not schedule them for longer than necessary. A lot of work can be done in a 20 minute meeting.

Parking lot – I got this idea for the counseling center trainings I attended and I love using it. Every meeting has occasions where important but not immediately relevant topics are brought up. Those topics go in the “parking lot” on a separate running list, and are brought back into the conversation as appropriate. This way the ideas are acknowledged, but the immediate conversation is not derailed.

I read a lot of management articles and the Lifehacker blog – the ideas presented here were collected and tested over the years from those sources.

Anna Valiavska Coordinates Freshman Interest Groups and Transfer Interest Groups at university of Missouri. You can reach her at [email protected] or on twitter @AValiavska