Guest Post: Akshat Sinha

Akshat is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

Executives of company A, along with supervisors from the development and testing teams from both companies met at company B’s premises to discuss about a product they had been developing together. A room with twelve people chaired by Mr. Doe from company B ‘kicked-off’ with the top item on the agenda - status updates from each team. At that time, there were two unoccupied seats in the room, but the time was five minutes past ten already. A’s developing supervisor started with his updates and touched bases with the members of the other team. At twenty minutes into the meeting , a serious discussion about a critical procedure with potential legal implications was on the third PowerPoint slide and the door opened. The two people missing from the meeting, entered the room with an apology.

After the meeting was over, there was some confusion around the critical procedure that was being discussed at twenty minutes past when the meeting had begun. Participants who were in doubt over the relevance of the procedure did not question-and-clarify in the room for having been thought of as the dumb fellows. They pretended to understand everything. Eventually, there was another meeting held for the same topic two days later. What I described above was an experience that I had a few years ago. Was the first meeting successful? Were the chances for the second one to be successful, grim?

Meeting – the dictionary definition is “an assembly or conference of persons for a specific purpose.” We are a social species. Even with the rise in technology and the presence of voice and video gadgets everywhere, traditional style face-to-face meetings are still the choice of people where ever possible. Why? Because a person’s truth value, confidence and self-presentation give the on-looker an impression with which the meeting is likely to be driven and result in an outcome. Being a ‘servant’ [HBS April, 1977] of a meeting is what determines the success of that multi-person rendezvous. By success, I simply mean – there is no meeting after the meeting to discuss the same subject again, neither officially nor a small talk between the participants. The whole point of the meeting is to get everybody in the room to present their ideas, thoughts, expertise, experience, criticisms, observations, etc., and get them reviewed by others.

I have a strong belief that one must do everything in his/her power before, during and after the meeting to ensure the meeting’s success. Each individual in the room is present to learn something and share his knowledge with others, in effect modifying the cognizance in the room, so that a collective decision is made. Research shows that to get commitment from people, one must get them to say ‘I will do it’ by the end of the meeting. The keyword for the duration of the meeting is “Action.” Chris Labash’s 5Ps, as he thoughtfully quotes, “are very important to get the most out of a conference.” These include ‘Purpose,’ ‘People,’ ‘Preparation,’ ‘Participation’ and ‘Point.’ The very basic question, ‘Do we need a meeting in the first place?’ is the one most important element that determines if the meeting will be driven to an outcome. The key elements of a great meeting, if put in hierarchy, would follow a common path. Each element is important to ensure a result-oriented delivery.

After the purpose is determined, chalking out an ‘agenda’ enables a smooth topic-by-topic discussion without digression, again an important factor! “Stick to what we want to discuss today” should speak for this point. Next, the number of participants would make the list at number three. Research shows that in meetings with more than ten participants, a challenge bigger than driving the meeting is to handle the people first. Associated with the participants is the ‘time of day’ factor, which also has a big hand in determining the likelihood of how good or bad the meeting would be. It is Tuesday and you’ve made plans with family over the weekend. Tickets are booked. Reservations are made. Boss sends a meeting invite for Friday 4PM. Uncomfortable and uneasy feelings usually engulf the room. Was that meeting perfect? May be, or may be far from it! Latter is most likely.

Next question, “is the ‘location’ well equipped with the tools/electronic items such as projectors, A/V products etc. which are necessary for this meeting?” Absence of a projector, for example, in a business proposal meeting could show how a company is organized and decisions would be made rather quickly. The next item in the hierarchy is the meeting ‘invitation’. Depending on the kind of workplace, culture, topics, agenda etc. the aesthetics and content of the invitation play an important role. Attaching a draft agenda is always the best idea for people to be prepared. The contents of the invitation also drive our next important handler – “What should I bring to the meeting? Paper to take notes, perhaps!” The above are the so called ‘before(s)’ of a meeting. What follows next is the actual meeting.

Being late for a meeting should always be a capital ‘NO.’ Arrive early, distribute the final agenda, start the meeting with introductions and the purpose of the get-together and run the meeting! Behavioral ground rules for the meeting become apparent from the person who drives the meeting. Bluntly put, “If a person speaks, others should listen!” is how the meeting should run. The confidence and attitude of the chair should send a message across participants of what they are there for and what is expected.

After all, a meeting without action is nothing but conversation, which is not effective. The metric of the meeting is its outcome, the solution to a problem – in any form, document, individual assignments, pictures, videos, etc.. The elements described above are a tool which, when used religiously, would simply inculcate the necessary steps in a person over-time. These could be highly effective for the person in the long run with no extra effort pulled from within. The essentials of how to lead and run meetings would simply come by habit.