The Role That “Behaviors” Play In Making Meetings Productive

 

The Desired State for meetings was very well articulated by Peter Drucker when he said:

“We meet because people holding different jobs have to cooperate to get a specific job done. We meet because the knowledge and experience needed in a specific situation are not available in one head, but have to be pieced together out of the knowledge and experience of several people”.

 

The current state was then commented on by Thomas Kayser in his book Mining Group Gold:

 

“A meeting is an interaction where the unwilling selected from the uninformed, led by the unsuitable to discuss the unnecessary are required to act on and write about something unimportant” He went on then to say “ A meeting is a gathering where people speak up, say nothing and then all disagree!”

 

We suspect (and hope!) that the reality lies somewhere in between and is moving toward the desired state!

 

As we set “meetings” to discuss what should be the objective of this article, how should it be written and who would contribute in what way, we encountered first hand for the millionth time the potential that meetings have - to either be hugely productive or a complete waste of time!

 

We read a huge body of work that exists in the cyber space and in books on meetings and how they can be made effective, we delved into our own experience and our own knowhow only to realize that “experts” have been talking about the same 5 mantras for the last 8 decades. So ostensibly it takes only the following 5 to make effective meetings:

 

1.       Before calling a meeting consider whether a meeting is required!

2.       Spend adequate time on thinking through and distributing the agenda.

3.       Make sure only the right people attend.

4.       Start on time and end on time. Manage distractions.

5.       Rigorously minute the meeting and follow up

 

Simple enough, right? But then there is ample research that also indicates how utterly unproductive almost 70% meetings are anywhere in the globe, how managers are spending an astonishing average of 5 hours per day in meetings. No matter the Ivy League colleges that these managers maybe from, no matter the number of years of experience, no matter amount of training on effective meetings they may have attended; the results are startling similar.

 

So what stops most of us from executing the most “commonsensical meeting best practices”? In all our discussions and some dipstick interviews we conducted there were broadly 2 main planks that emerged as an answer to this question.

 

Firstly conspicuous by its absence was the clear articulation of the “consequence of unproductive meetings”. Surprised? Not really, right? There is a distinct discomfort in acknowledging what we lose individually and collectively when we allow meetings to be unproductive. Could the concern in most quarters be that, either it would put us in the spotlight, not provide an easy escape route to non-action or it would need another set of meetings to understand why our meetings are not productive!

 

Whatever maybe the concern, the end result is that most of us find it easier to continue to lead or participate in unproductive meetings than to pull up our sleeves and really understand what “we” need to Change. And need we say anything about how we love to change!

 

Not to be completely uncharitable, there are a few flag bearers who have the courage to actively steer meetings towards the desired state of productivity. The hope is that the “few” become “many”.

 

The second major plank was a sixth mantra which has hitherto not been given its due place in the list of “Meeting Best Practices”. The sixth mantra being “MEETING BEHAVIOURS”. The fact that our behaviors govern our actions and therefore our results in every sphere of life and work should also then apply to meetings.

 

No matter how well written the agenda is, how much in advance is it shared with the “right” people, how well regulated are the  meetings if the crucial bottom of the iceberg “behaviors” are not tended to, the best planned meetings can be unproductive.

 

Some of the critical behaviors that have been identified as coming into play are as follows: (Details on what these mean, how and when should they be brought to life are available)

 

A.      INITIATING BEHAVIORS

q  PROPOSING

q  BUILDING

B. REACTING BEHAVIORS

q  AGREEING

q  DISAGREEING

q  DEFENDING /ATTACKING

C.      CLARIFYING BEHAVIORS

q  GIVING INFORMATION

q  SEEKING INFORMATION

q  SUMMARIZING

q  TESTING / UNDERSTANDING

D.      PROCESS BEHAVIORS

q  BRINGING-IN

q  SHUTTING-OUT

 

The essence of this research is that all members of a meeting should know that this is an available palate of behaviors, should know when and where these have to be deployed and should be able to use these constructively towards a productive outcome. There would be interventions that would be required before and after the meetings to educate some members on their uses.

 

It would be of great service if the focus of “Meeting Best Practices” shifted from the first 5 mantras (which are easy to understand) to the 6^th Mantra “Meeting Behaviours” which is the pivot on which potential success of meetings rests.

 

The route to Productivity has always rested on very fundamental principles which have not changed over time,  the real test then is in relentlessly and honestly implementing the right behaviors for productivity. The sooner this comes to our active horizon the faster will we all release critical time from meetings for more value adding pursuits at work, at home and for ourselves! That should be a reasonable goal to work towards in your next meeting!. It will require some concerted effort though. Like William E Utterback the author of Group Thinking and Conference Leadership said:

 

 

It must not be supposed that the conference table possesses the magic property of generating wisdom when rubbed simultaneously by a dozen pairs of elbows.

William E. Utterback,