Research Report - How to Run a Successful Meeting

INTRODUCTION

This report addresses the previously identified issue of meetings that waste time and hinder productivity within the Information Technology (IT) department.  In a recent study that sought to understand how employees perceive business meetings, 92 percent of the 14 respondents believed that some or most of the meetings they attend are a waste of time.  Forty-six percent believed that from 10 to 20 percent of the organization’s payroll is spent on poorly run, unproductive, and inefficient meetings.  

According to Dom Cingoranelli, CMC, CPA (2001), a management consultant with the Experiential Learning Group writing for The CPA Journal, successful meetings do not just happen, they are the result of significant forethought and rigorous planning to achieve a successful meeting.  Cingoranelli asserts that managers need to devote meaningful time and effort to achieve this outcome.  Toward that end, the information contained within this report will provide straightforward guidelines to conducting purposeful and out-come-oriented meetings with follow-up that facilitates accountability, and keeps the project moving and current with established timelines.  These guidelines are recommended specifically for IT directors and managers, leaders of team meetings held at the group level, and generally for participants desiring to make meetings vital and productive, and increase their effectiveness in their organization.

Background and Problem

The problem of ineffective meetings seems to be a theme across industries and throughout decades, with experts agreeing on their tendency to fall short of their potential.  Authur M. Sargent, author of an article published in The Journal of Accountancy in 1959, noted that a significant portion of a professional businessperson’s meetings is consumed in meetings, both large and small, and that the result is “all too often frustration and a feeling of time wasted” (Abstract).  In 1988, Robert Woods, a Ph.D. candidate, and Florence Berger, an associate professor, both at Cornell University, reported that meetings occupy 50 to 60 percent of the work week for the average manager.  Ava S. Butler in her 1996 article, Taking Meetings by Storm, stated that often managers “dream of doing away with meetings, especially those long, boring ones where nothing gets accomplished” (Abstract).   

More recently, Deborah Britt Roebuck (2006) cited MCI WorldCom Conferencing research revealing people spend nearly three hours a day in business meetings, where “73 percent admit to having done other work when they are supposed to be paying attention,” (p. 291), and fully a third of them now skip meetings saying they consider them to be unproductive.  According to a study cited by Woods & Berger (1988), 78 percent of the respondents said they had never received any formal training on how to conduct successful meetings, nor had they ever been instructed on how to participate in meetings to make them successful.  This paper addresses the problem of ineffective and poorly run meetings by suggesting guidelines to aid in the preparation, presentation, and participation of meetings, with the goal of making them successful.

Scope of the Report

This report provides guidelines and suggestions to meeting organizers, leaders, and participants that will increase the productivity and effectiveness of common business meetings.  Although there are many reasons business why meetings take place, this report will address meetings where the purpose is to exchange information and make a decision, and meetings where the purpose is to solve problems.  This report includes techniques and suggestions that have been successful for business meeting leaders in the past, that when applied to today’s meetings will produce meetings with better results.  The report does not contain new and untried techniques, rather offers a few approaches and methods that have proven successful in business meetings across various industries.

Limitations of the Report

The researcher collected survey data from 17 respondents from various business backgrounds.  Although the resulting data is representative of other similar data collected on the subject of running successful meetings, it is not a true sample size of the business population as a whole.  Other limitations include a very limited timeline, and a non-existent budget. 

Sources and Methods of Data Collection

To help identify perceptions of current issues with business meetings, and to collect ideas about creative solutions to these issues, the researcher conducted a 10-question survey of seventeen people.  The survey was posted on the researcher’s Face Book page, and solicited feedback from volunteers in a pool of Face Book friends.  Data from additional sources will be used to provide examples of current thinking on the causes of ineffective meetings, and to provide experts’ thoughts on how to improve meetings.  The desired result of this research is a recommended format for effective business meetings.

Organization of the Report

The report has several sections, each listing a component of running a successful meeting.  The first section discusses determining the meeting’s purpose, followed by a section on deciding who should attend.  Next, a section on how to plan the meeting, one on how to manage the meeting, and finally a section on effective follow up to the meeting to keep efforts moving forward.

FINDINGS

Determine the Meeting’s Purpose

Sargent (1959) defined a meeting as “two or more people who have gathered together for a specific purpose” (p. 41) such as arbitration, problem solving, planning, etc.  Woods & Berger (1988) stated that meetings “fulfill a legitimate and valuable function…[because] a group is generally more creative and better at decision making than an equivalent number of individuals working alone” (p. 101).  The researcher’s survey results find that 29 percent of the time participants never, or almost never understand the purpose of the meetings they attend.  This finding reveals that the first and most elementary concept in planning an effective meeting is to understand the purpose of the meeting, even to the point of deciding if the meeting should be held in the first place (Roebuck, 2006).  Cyrus Farivar, writing for CBS News, believes that a “vast majority of meetings never need to take place” (para. 2), and suggested that if the transfer of information is one way (e.g., update or status report), an email will work best.  If feedback is required from all participants, a meeting may be needed as email has its limitations.  

Figure 1 - Percent of time that respondents understand both the desired purpose and outcome for the meetings they attended.

Once the decision is made to have a meeting, it is important to have clear objectives.  In the survey, less than one percent of the time the respondents indicated both an understanding of the purpose of the meetings and a feeling that none of them were a waste of time.  Woods & Berger (1988) state there are two basic reasons for scheduling a meeting.  Informational meetings allow an exchange of information when the content is too complex for email or memo, and problem-solving meetings. Meetings without clear objectives, the authors say, tend to waste people’s time.  Additionally, it is vital to invite only those people who need to be there.

Figure 2 – Percent of time that respondents both understand the meeting’s purpose and consider the meeting a waste of time 

Decide Who Should Attend

When asked how often the meetings they attend contain just the management and staff who are key to the process and decision-making, 54 percent of the respondents indicated most of the time, while 46 percent indicated never, almost never, or some of the time.  Cingoranelli (2001) suggested the manager should determine “whose input is vital to the issue, whose knowledge is essential for solving the problem, and whose involvement afterward will be critical to implementation” (para. 5).  This means carefully evaluating the potential attendees for their ability to contribute directly to the meeting’s purpose. 

Figure 3 – Percent of respondents who said that only attendees critical to the process and decision making attend meetings

Figure 4– Maximum Number of Participants per Meeting Type
SOURCE:  Roebuck, D.B. (2006). Improving business communications skills (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Plan the Meeting

Once the type of meeting and the appropriate participants have been determined, Woods & Berger (1988) asserted the next “critical element in running a good business meeting is proper planning” (p. 102), and that establishing the agenda is fundamental to that purpose.  When asked how often the meetings in their organization contain a basic agenda (at a minimum a discussion topic, discussion leader, time allotted for discussion), respondents replied that 58% percent of the time an agenda is prepared never, almost never, or only some of the time, with 43% saying most of the time.   

According to Woods & Berger (1988), a good agenda is more than a list of topics up for discussion.  As a critical tool in the success of a meeting, an agenda should include the following items:  start- and end-time, location, purpose, required attendees, brief summary of topics to be discussed, desired outcome (solution, agreement to move forward, other action, etc.), discussion leader, and time allotted per discussion.  Further, the authors suggested that meetings should be as “short as possible and never longer than two hours” (p. 103).  This ensures “sufficient attention and energy to work efficiently…beyond that…meeting productivity will decrease” (p. 103).  When asked to identify what is the biggest barrier to successful meetings in the survey, half the recipients indicated a lack of a clear plan for the meeting.  It is clear that without this plan, the meeting will wander, the interest of attendees will languish, and people will feel their time has been wasted.  

Figure 5 – Percent of time meetings contain a basic agenda

The manager should circulate the prepared agenda a day or two prior to the scheduled meeting.  This allows for the participants to provide feedback should there be a need to alter a discussion topic in any way, and for the participants to prepare for leading a discussion on their assigned topic.  To ensure that participants have the background information necessary for the meeting, supporting documents or reports should be attached to the agenda.  Agendas distributed by email should be pasted into the body of the email rather than included as attachments to alleviate the tendency for email recipients to avoid opening attachments.  Once the agenda is distributed, attention must be given to the meeting process.

Manage the Meeting

Promptness of attendees is critical to the progress of the meeting.  Author Carmine Gallo (2010) quotes Steve Spurgeon, an Interpersonal Communications Specialist, who spent over three decades in senior leadership at the world’s top Public Relation agencies, as saying “there is a ‘collective energy’ and attention at the start of a meeting that evaporates with every late arrival” (para. 4).  Woods & Berger (1988) explained that late arrivers slow the meeting’s progress and shift the attention from the topic at hand to their late arrival. 

In addition to setting expectations for promptness, meeting experts agree that establishing meeting roles is critical to the successful functioning of the meeting [Woods & Berger (1988), Kolano (1995)].  When asked how often the meetings they attend contain individuals functioning in certain roles (facilitator, discussion leader, note/action item taker), 29 percent (4) of the respondents in the survey indicated never or almost never, 14 percent (2) responded some of the time, while 57 percent (8) responded most of the time.  In his blog, How to Run a Successful Meeting, Cyrus Farivar (2007) proposes when a meeting organizer enlists the help of others to handle specific details, meetings run more smoothly.  Encouraging participants to invest in the success of the meeting process minimizes boredom, and allows them to contribute to the meeting’s overall effectiveness.  At a minimum, Kolano (1995) recommends identifying key meeting participants for the following roles:

• Facilitator – Keeps the meeting on track, follows up on assigned actions after the meeting

• Discussion Leader – Keeps participants on track with the topicScribe – Records important information, action items and due dates, and distributes to meeting participants.  

• Timekeeper – Makes sure the meeting starts and stops on schedule, reminds facilitator when agenda items are going over their allotted time (Farivar, 2005, para. 11).

Figure 6 – Percent of time meetings enlist others in functional role

FOLLOW-UP ON ACTION ITEMS

When meeting minutes or action items have been recorded, it is imperative that they be distributed as soon as possible, but within 24 hours after the meeting ends (Woods & Berger, 1998).  The authors also recommend using action minutes to eliminate the unnecessary details of providing complete meeting minutes.  Farivar (2007) lists the benefits to distributing action minutes as they can be followed up on, and projects easily can be kept moving.  Including a topic labeled follow-up on last meeting’s action items as one of the first items on the agenda will help hold people accountable.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings of this report suggest productive meetings that contribute to an organization’s effectiveness and that do not unnecessarily detract from the bottom line do not just happen.  Running an effective meeting involves more than deciding on a place and time to meet.  In order to be effective, it is recommended that meetings need structure and order, and successful meetings occur with intended purpose, careful planning, and timely follow-up.  A purposeful objective, a well-thought-out agenda, and the intentional involvement of participants in the preparation, execution, and follow-up of a meeting all pay dividends in the effectiveness and success of both the meeting and organization as a whole. 

APPENDIX

Sample Questionnaire

1.              In your opinion, what is the biggest barrier to successful meetings in your organization?  Describe briefly.

2.              Generally speaking, how productive are the meetings in your organization?

a.              Very productive

b.              Somewhat productive

c.              Neither productive, nor non-productive

d.              Somewhat unproductive

e.              Very unproductive

3.              Although a professional business meeting’s agenda may contain many different components, a basic agenda contains the following items: Discussion topic, Discussion leader, Time allotted for discussion.  How often do the meetings in your organization contain a basic agenda?

a.              Most of the time

b.              Some of the time

c.              Never or almost never

4.              How often do you understand the desired purpose and outcome for the meetings you attend?

a.              Most of the time

b.              Some of the time

c.              Never or almost never

5.              Sometimes meetings are small, other times they are larger.  How often do the meetings you attend contain just the management and staff who are key to the process and decision-making, etc.?

a.              Most of the time

b.              Some of the time

c.              Never or almost never

6.              Meetings that run smoothly – even less formal meetings, often have individuals functioning in certain roles.  These roles include Facilitator, Discussion Leader, and Note/Action Item Taker.  How often do the meetings you attend contain these types of roles?

a.              Most of the time

b.              Some of the time

c.              Never or almost never

7.               How many meetings do you attend in a typical week?

a.              0 – 1

b.              2 – 4

c.              5 – 6

d.              Greater than 6

8.              Of the meetings you attend in your organization, roughly how many of them do you consider a waste of time?

a.              All of them

b.              Most of them

c.              Some of them

d.              None of them

9.              In your work experience, think back to any particularly well-run meetings you may have experienced.   List the top (3) components you feel contributed to their being well run.

10.           Research shows that bad meetings can cost an organization up to 20% of their payroll.  Think about how efficient and productive the meetings are in your organization.  If you had to guess, how close to the 20% mark (in terms of payroll) do poorly run, unproductive, and inefficient meetings cost your organization?

a.              20% or more

b.              15 – 20%

c.              10 – 15%

d.              0 – 1

WORKS CITED

Butler, A. S.  (1996, October).  Taking meetings by storm.  Management review, 85(10), p. 24.  Retrieved from ProQuest database, document ID:  10238391.

Cingoranelli, D.  (2001, January).  Successful meetings.  The CPA journal, 71(1), p. 58.  Retrieved from ProQuest database, document ID:  67331920.

Farivar, Cyrus.  (2007, April 9).  How to run an effective meeting.  Message posted to http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-51061211/how-to-run-an-effective-meeting/

Gallo, Carmine.  (2010, November 24).  Run more effective meetings.  Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/nov2010/sb20101123_788076.htm

Kolano, F.  (1995, December).  Kick off your meetings with a flare.  Quality progress, 28(12), p. 144.  Retrieved from ProQuest database, document ID:  9159934.

Roebuck, D. B. (2006).  Improving business communications skills (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Sargent, A. M.  (1959, June).  Techniques for successful meetings and conferences.  Journal of accountancy 107(6), p. 41.

Woods, R. H., & Berger, F.  (1988, August).  Making meetings work.  Cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 29(2), p. 100.