Rowley Associates

I’ve sat in hundreds of meetings. Most are dismal affairs. Mind-numbingly boring, few people really wanting to be there (the mentality being ‘the real work is done outside this meeting’), decisions circle the airspace of the meeting room, never getting the OK to land. Very few have truly captured the potential of the people in the room. There are many reasons why meetings are often the last place people want to be. Poor leadership, an insane number of agenda items, too little time, and survival of the loudest, all contribute to meetings in Corporate America being much less than the sum of their parts.

One particular problem I see time and time again is a complete lack of decision-making.  In business people are brought together for many reasons: To share information, review results or product specs or to make decisions about an issue or problem germane to the business. So how to make better decisions? Its all in the preparation and execution.

Preparation means:

• Get the right people in the room. Some people equate attending a meeting with status, “I’m in the room therefore I am important” so they attend even if they weren’t on the invite. Attendance bloat can also happen by attendee’s inviting others to provide ‘safety in numbers’. If you want a quality discussion, numbers count. I’ve found that once numbers move above 10 to 12 people it becomes less a decision-making forum and more of a report out. It’s also important to ensure that people can do more than just represent their business. If you are running a senior management team meeting the attendee’s must be able to step-away from their own business interests to look at the wider interests of the organization as a whole. If they can’t manage this separation they shouldn’t be in the meeting.
• Provide enough time. I’m often surprised by how much managers think they can achieve in 1 hour. Less truly is more when it comes to discussions. Its far better for people to leave a meeting feeling a sense of momentum and accomplishment than they have peanut buttered a bunch of important decisions they have no attachment to. The same goes for meetings that are too long. Human activity often fills the time available so meetings over two hours need to be carefully facilitated to ensure people don’t check out.
• Circulate important information before hand and have copies of pertinent documents available in the meeting. Nothing kills momentum than having a bunch of people read through reports or spreadsheets. If you want to ensure people are on the same page summarize the problem to be solved and explain the issues – see points 1 and 2 below.
• Try to avoid slide decks. They kill discussion and provide some people with an excuse to disengage.

It's not rocket science is it? Simple steps but rarely followed. We now come to the meeting itself. There are 4-steps to better decision-making. These can be summarized using the acronym - FEDD.

Execution

1. Frame the problem to be solved. This is the most important step. Get everyone in the room on the same page. On many occasions I have observed individuals discussing different problems. No one had bothered to frame the problem that needed a decision so people defined it based on their viewpoint – usually from the perspective of their business not necessarily the business as a whole. The result is a series of decisions but not to the problem that needed an answer in the first place
2. Explain the issues. Why is this a problem? Provide supporting information if necessary. If you are going to use slides now is the time before you get into a discussion
3. Discuss – The usual rules apply. To get the best decision its important to hear from everybody. Conflict is good as long as it’s focused on the problem to be solved and not directed personally. Restating helps people follow what has been said. Whiteboards can help, as some folks are more comfortable discussing concepts visually/graphically.
4. Decide – It's not a popularity contest so the purpose of a decision isn’t to make everyone feel good – what’s important is that people feel they have had chance to contribute to the decision and the decision is good for the business.  Good leadership means making the tough calls. I have seen all the air leave a meeting, and damage the credibility of the leader, when a decision is deferred or a tough call avoided. The other ‘hygiene’ factors around a decision I insist on are:
   • When an agreement is reached the decision is summarized so everyone is clear what has been decided.
   • Owners, resources and a timeline are also agreed. I will never, ever, let a person make a decision in a meeting without first confirming an owner, a deadline and a date for an update.
   • Keeping the decision on track. Having a date for the owner(s) to provide a status update is important as it increases accountability and execution. It also shows that as a leader you have your finger on the pulse.

Team meetings shouldn’t be seen as a time-suck or as something to avoid. If you aren’t sure how your meetings are perceived then take a quick pulse – at the end of your next meeting ask everyone to write down one thing they would keep and one thing they want to change about the current meeting format. Writing it down avoids the ‘I think the same as the last guy’ statement. You might be surprised at the feedback.