Making the most of meetings

The life of an executive revolves round meetings. He has to meet with colleagues, board of directors, shareholders, financiers, suppliers, union representatives, regulators and government officials, among others. Although holding meetings is vital to the success of an executive, if care is not taken, meetings can be his undoing, if he allows himself to get bogged down by endless meetings that produce little or no result.

But since holding meetings is an unavoidable part of an executive’s schedule, the challenge is how to make the most of each meeting. The following tips will help.

Be prepared

The old saying ‘To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail’ holds true for meetings. The presiding officer has to be prepared for the meeting if it will turn out well and not just a time-wasting endeavour. The presiding officer must have facts and figures about the issues at hand. If he is deficient in that, the meeting will most likely be hijacked from him and it may drag on for longer than anticipated.

Set out with an agenda

To have a productive meeting, start with an agenda. Meetings that last forever are those that are without an agenda. The agenda gives the essence of the meeting. For a meeting to be quite effective, it is best that the agenda gets to participants ahead of the meeting time. Not having an agenda is a licence for everyone, including those that have nothing to contribute, to say something.  It is not everyone in a meeting that is supposed to speak on every matter discussed at the meeting. Knowing this, will help you cut off unnecessary talks. The agenda is a guide and with a guide, your chances of arriving at your destination are high.

Allocate time to every item on the agenda

In our part of the world, little respect is accorded time. The same indiscipline is brought to meetings. To avoid this, a specified duration should be set for every meeting. This should be taken further by specifying the number of minutes to be spent on each item on the agenda. If that is done, the presiding officer knows that he has a responsibility to rein in any member that attempts to take too much time in making a point or those that may be tempted to veer off the matter being discussed.

Don’t allow introduction of extraneous issues

Meetings drag on for too long because, oftentimes, issues not listed on the agenda are allowed to be brought into the discussion. If this happens, the presiding officer should politely ask the participant to raise the matter under Other Businesses.

Finally, treat every meeting as if it were a time of consultation for which you were to pay. If you were to pay a lawyer or an engineer N100,000 for every hour you engage him for consultation  would you allow the consultation to drag on forever? The success of a meeting is not measured by the length of time it takes but by the result it produces.