One of the inevitable parts of business life is meetings. For meetings that start with extremely valuable objectives such as informing about what has been done, solving a problem, listening to a subject, and taking action, it is possible to find informative articles, recommendations and guides from consultants or training companies.
When meetings are organized, agenda-driven and timely, they are very useful in terms of informing the relevant parties simultaneously and delegating tasks. On the other hand, some of them are incredibly tiring; suffocating, endless meetings can definitely be time killers. It is possible to see from their faces and body language what it means to people when they hear the word “meeting”.
We used to have regular or business/project based meetings every week in the companies I worked for years, and certainly we used to have meetings during customer and insurance company visits. Before going to internal meetings, we generally knew what to expect. There would be surprises, but generally speaking, it would be one of the types of meetings I will describe now.
The “Take Coals to Newcastle Meeting (TCN)” - I don't own this phrase, it's a metaphor of someone I like very much. There are a lot of issues that need to be discussed and action needs to be taken, the meeting lasts for hours, all hell breaks loose at your own table, things pile up, there is no action plan or decision at the end, after spending hours and drinking cups full of tea and coffee, we leave with the feeling of "so what did we talk about now?".
The draw was for you (Patsy) Query Room - Oh this is great! Typically project work is a kind of debriefing process. The project has an owner or owners and an elected spokesperson. The people on the project report their deliverables to this spokesperson. The spokesperson in turn informs the management, the client, the participant. Then the moments of sweat begin. "Why is that like that, why didn't you do this, explain this, what would have happened otherwise, who said it, how much did it cost, why is it so expensive, explain." Everyone in the project is silent, their eyes and ears fixed on the spokesperson with every question, the spokesperson struggles, pleading for help with his eyes, but the help that is expected usually does not show up. At the end of the meeting, the spokesperson is drenched in sweat, the other members of the project say, "Thank you for your work, if only you had said this and that"; "if only YOU had said that"you would think, but what is done is done.
Polishing - Oh, I love these. The team is called in, a new project or a newcomer is introduced, the innovations they would bring are glossed over, praised, expectations are spelled out (as if everything that has been done so far is rubbish), and the rhetoric is "forget the old, a new era has begun". After the meeting, there may be some people who partially or fully embrace the idea, but there is usually a lot of backbiting; even in the most institutionalized structures, these polishing meetings create a very negative reaction. The praises are forgotten, the projects are shelved, the team that had embraced the institution until then is “crushed” because “someone is going to shine once again” and life returns to its normal rhythm.
Scolding / Lecturing: These are fantastic - there is a problem, the first person to confront the problem and the first person to be scolded says "Friends, let's get together urgently". At the meeting, where eyebrows are raised but nothing is said, the problem is announced and the culprits are identified. The opinion is ready, those responsible are reprimanded in front of the others for the inconvenience they have caused. The job or client is handed over to someone else, no questions are asked as to “why did this happen, could we have prevented it?” The culprit is found, punished, and the others are intimidated, "Let this be a lesson for you"; hours of speeches are delivered. Then everyone scatters.
Bombast - This is the format of TCN meetings where no business is discussed, just chit-chat. I think it's better than the others, at least you can have a couple of good conversations and have a good time, even if it doesn't lead to anything. If the topic is something that will be over in a short time, it is finished immediately; then the talk turns into a conversation, the topic leads to another topic, teas and coffees are enjoyed, time is spent with a smile and an agreement is made for the next bombast meeting. Delightful!
Talk about exciting - that's what I always regret. Most of all, these are periodic meetings, at the end of every month, at the beginning of every week. With great seriousness and care, the presentations start to be delivered one after the other. In fact, there is only one subject that the audience is interested in and that is the financials (how many we sold, how much we spent), the others can be ignored. The speakers tell the story, but when they look up, someone is talking on the phone; another is constantly looking at the e-mails coming in; another is drawing triangles, flowers and insects on the paper in front of him; someone who seems interested says "uh-huh", and not only do they not show the necessary interest in the meeting they want, they don't listen to it either. Then, usually your top or direct manager wants to show that he or she is listening and asks a question or politely thanks you. Next! You take a sip of your water and start listening to the next person.
Several years ago, we were preparing for an insurance tender of an important group. As the project manager, I had spent weeks of visits and meetings - most of the work was undertaken almost single-handedly - the roadmap and business plan were ready, I was fully equipped. I was asked to prepare a presentation for the prospective client's management and then a detailed report to be submitted. I prepared the report, prepared a draft presentation with the salient headlines I took from it, and sent it to all the participants to review along with the agenda before the meeting.
We started the meeting, a power point presentation. On the very first page someone said - "The logo should be on the right, the font should be like this". Well, we move on to other pages, we move forward, on each page another note, criticism, question "We are already gathered for this, it is always useful to have a different eye taking a look". But style, tone of voice, the way it is said is important. If you have been working on something for a long time, you will feel more sensitive, excited and often tired because you own it. If the tone is negative and questioning, rather than solution-oriented and contributory criticism, we get nervous. Each question becomes more and more tiring and it becomes more and more difficult to stay calm. This meeting, too, was slowly becoming challenging. The meeting continued with questions-answers, "okay" and sighs, with me gritting my teeth in between. The customer operates in more than one region and address, and I had marked them on the map. Our manager said, "Actually, let's tap on the marked point on the map and display the name of the subsidiary there." "We can do it, no problem, it's a good idea," I replied. This time he must have been surprised that I knew about these tricks, because he asked, "Did you graduate from business administration?" (Don't ask if he didn't know, it was a company with many employees, I didn't care about that at all. He knows I'm from METU, but he's not sure about the major. I also couldn't figure out the connection between business administration and power point animations, but whatever). “No” I said, ‘I'm a graduate of Psychological Counseling’. "Oh," he said, 'So, does this training help your work?' We are in a sector called People Business and my education is in psychology, I said, 'I can't tell you all of its contributions right now, but it certainly contributed to this meeting!' That tense atmosphere was suddenly filled with giggles. We all started laughing, the meeting was much more pleasant afterwards, we finished the presentation together, the client liked the pitch and we landed the job.
We rarely or never experience most of these things in online meetings. That is because they are timed, they have a clear agenda, they go through the topics one by one and in an orderly fashion, and they achieve their purpose. Even though I prefer face-to-face meetings, I like online meetings because they are fast and effective. In 30 or 45 minutes, everyone has shared their notes or what they have done, the topics have been determined, the division of labor has been done and the result has been reached. Moreover, it is much more comfortable to have a meeting in a more relaxed environment, with tea, coffee and everything you need close at hand.
Meetings in organizations with a set agenda, starting and ending on time are always beneficial. Listening attentively to the speaker saves time, the right and focused questions bring solutions and results. People should understand people, whoever they are may need support; if we know about your responsibilities and are prepared before the meeting, the meeting will be productive for everyone. Everyone's time is precious, everyone's labor is valuable; it is enough to comply with basic meeting preparations and management in order for the time allocated to the meeting to pay off and work.
The format of customer or supplier meetings may differ from internal meetings. Let's talk about them some other time.
Productive and enjoyable meetings to all.
Comments