Few realities of organizational life are the subject of more complaints than meetings.  Large or small, scheduled or ad hoc, meetings are as necessary as they are annoying.  There’s a better way.

There are four key elements which, taken together, drive far better meeting outcomes.  Format, Alignment, Structure, and Timing (FAST) can combine to help meeting organizers plan for and execute meetings that achieve and even exceed objectives and expectations.  Let’s look at the second element, Alignment.

In my work with senior leadership teams in even successful, fast-growing companies, alignment is a constant challenge.  While there are many factors that contribute to this, lack of clear internal communication is certainly a major one.  Effective, focused meetings are a useful way to solve this. Here are a few elements.

Who needs to attend?  Those whose participation is required are the ones to attend.  Some may be required for only a portion of the meeting; this is fine.  Resist the temptation to have them there for the entire meeting; unless there are agreement that subtle but important benefits are expected.

Ground rules are especially helpful.  These should reflect the way in which the meeting will be conducted and should be endorsed and agreed to by all present.  During the meeting, any member should be able to “call out” a ground rule violation by any other member without concern for retribution.  There should be an expectation that the meeting will be held with equal parts decency, dignity and decorum. 

Since the agenda will have been distributed in advance, there should be no surprise about what is to be discussed and how much time should be allocated for each. 

The first item of business should be the adoption of the agenda.  Should there be any recommended changes this is the time. 

By aligning agenda items, expected outcomes and meeting participants, better results are far more likely.  Next, we’ll look at the last two FAST meeting elements, structure and timing.

For more information on ways to get better meeting outcomes, contact me at joe@ajstrategy.com or visit my website @ ajstrategy.com.