The wizards are in for a staff meeting. Let’s hope it’s worthwhile!

I’ve just seen Gandalf, Dumbledore and Merlin in the office. Apparently, they were in for a staff meeting. A staff meeting… geddit?

Sorry, awful joke. But it’s interesting, don’t you think, that they all came to the office for this mythical meeting.

If we’re taking this sorry excuse for a joke to the Nth degree, then we could say they had to come in because Teams and Zoom don’t feature very highly in Harry Potter or 9th-century AD folklore… or something.

Ahem, anyway, the point is that people often still come into the office for a meeting, even in this golden age of remote working.

Is it because meeting face-to-face is better and more productive? 

Perhaps our esteemed sorcerers saw it as a chance to pop in and check in with their colleagues about that tricky cauldron redesign project in person.

Well, that meeting could have been an email!

Whether face-to-face or via the wizardry of Teams and Zoom, there are better ways to run meetings. We can have meetings with an outcome where everybody in them has a reason to be there and where everybody feels empowered to have their say.

Nobody wants to waste three hours of their short lives in a meeting that could have been an email. And for heaven’s sake, what are pre-meeting meetings all about?

I was lucky enough to work in a multinational corporation many moons ago. I was often invited to pre-meetings and even pre-pre-meetings. Once, I was asked to pop along to a pre-meeting, pre-meeting, pre-meeting, pre-meeting (shudder!)

What a wonderful use of everyone’s time they were.

When only the extroverts get to speak…

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, meetings, of course, ARE good things.

There’s lots of stuff that can’t be done without a meeting.

Meeting face-to-face means you can pick up those subtle body language cues and facial expressions too, very handy when you’re gauging feedback to an internal communications plan.

BUT…

… let’s face it, we’ve all sat through horrible meetings where only the extroverts get to speak, so they do need careful management to make them worthwhile for everyone (the meetings, not the extroverts!)

But how?

Over to you for some great advice!

Here’s some great advice from our Carly (Our Internal Comms Director).

“If you find yourself in a meeting and you hear yourself saying ‘I’m doing all the talking’ more than once, then STOP!

“Ask others what they think about the topic before you share your perspective.

“Especially if you are a leader, whether in hierarchy or perception.

Encourage others to share their thoughts first and then build on that. If you do it the other way round, you’ll lose people and stifle their contribution.”

Makes sense, right?

She also asked her legion of LinkedIn followers the meeting etiquette question, and we got some more-than-helpful advice back.

Here’s a summary…

Scheduling

• Encourage teams to block out their lunch (as only some eat at 12) and book out ‘thinking time’ as needed throughout the day – especially after meetings where there will likely be actions.
• If relevant, consider time zones, and don’t always schedule calls at a time that’s convenient for you if it’s inconvenient for others.
• No meetings before 9 a.m. and after 4.30 p.m. (YES, PREACH, sister!!)
• Have a meetings/calls-free day

Culture

• Create a culture where people question the necessity of a meeting and ask what their role is in it. If they don’t have any actions at the end of it, do they need to attend?
• Give people permission to reject an invite if there’s no info in it.

Purpose and structure

• Every meeting must have an agenda.
• Share information before the meeting so you turn up ‘prepped’ and ready to discuss/debate /decide – rather than listen to wave after wave of info.
• Make sure there’s a purpose for each individual (noting for each in the meeting invite)
• Give people permission to leave if their section is finished.

Tools

• If you use MS Teams, it has a meeting function where you can set meeting standards for specific groups of people (e.g. your own team), such as no meetings over 45 minutes – it can prompt for and embed agendas and meeting notes, too.

Here’s a few more golden nuggets of advice from Carly’s followers…

Veronica Dunn, a Senior Communications Specialist and Business Partner, said:

“I’d add being on camera (if it’s an online meeting), as there is nothing worse than talking with a sea of black boxes.”

We hear you (and see you), Veronica!

Here’s a cracking idea from Christine Armstrong, an Internal and Digital Transformation Change Communicator…

“Set standard meeting times to 25/50 mins – there’s a functionality in Outlook to preset this.

“Setting full half or full-hour meetings means that there’s no downtime between meetings for brain recovery (or a simple toilet break!).”

We LOVE this one, and finally, here’s Louise Thompson, a Leadership Coach for Communications Professionals…

“I’d also encourage leaders and teams to consider whether a meeting is needed. Too often the default now when a five-minute phone call might actually suffice!”

Oh yes, Louise, we can definitely get behind that one!

So, there you have it, folks, top tips for making meetings work for you rather than the other way around.

Let us know if you want a meeting about it (or a pre-meeting, or a pre-pre meeting 😊)

If you’re up for booting boring up the bum in your next internal comms project, let’s talk!