Wisdom and Leadership

Meetings are enough to make leaders despair for their sanity. To endure them we stay a little bit numb! Bad meetings are accepted as the way things are. Tackling meeting processes are understood to be a lower level management capacity, not deserving the attention of senior leaders.

/

1)  Patrick Lencioni in “Death by meeting” suggests that well run meetings are pivotal for success and are not to be underestimated! He famously proposes that leaders should address tactical or strategic matters in separate meetings. A simple proposition! But most of us still sit through hours discussing the staff picnic, only then to jump to company direction for three years.

2) Here are two magic little questions to insert into a meeting half way through proceedings:

What has been most useful in the meeting so far?

What is required to make this meeting better for the remainder of the time?

Keep people away from continuing to debate the content of the meeting but make sure each person contributes an answer.  You will be amazed what is said and how it helps the meeting improve.

3) Peter Hawkins suggests that senior teams have two empty chairs left spare in a meeting. One can be for staff and one for customers or other stakeholders. In a serious debate people can occupy the chairs and speak on behalf of the stakeholders. Richer and more representative decisions may arise.

I’d love to know other ways you have improved your meetings?