Enjoy this week’s guest post from Eric Ryan, founding partner of Mission Met LLC, on how to run a successful meeting!
I’ve borrowed the title for this blog entry from one of my favorite business books, Death by Meeting by Pat Lencioni. The basic idea of the book is not that you’ll die by meetings. Rather, you might die from awful meetings.
As you know, awful meetings happen all the time. They take too long. They wander aimlessly. They don’t start or end on time. You’d pretty much rather be anywhere else.
Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. I know because I lead hundreds of successful meetings each year, both in-person and virtually. In fact, I just facilitated a 4-hour Zoom meeting yesterday (yes, a four-hour Zoom meeting) that began on time, ended on time, led to a clear set of action-items, and left all thirteen people in attendance raving about what a great use of time it was. Imagine people leaving a four-hour meeting actually happy to have been in attendance!
Although I have many tricks to running effective meetings, there is a foundational tip that stands above all the rest: Communicate your meeting outcomes at the outset.
I know, this may not seem like much. But I promise you that it’s a game changer.
You see, most people create meeting agendas that say we’re going to talk about this, discuss that, etc. As a result, the meeting just ends up being a bunch of talking.
In contrast, what I do is establish and communicate a set of specific meeting outcomes for what we will accomplish by the end of the meeting. The table below compares agenda items with meeting outcomes.
| Typical Meeting Agenda Item | vs | Meeting Outcome |
| Social media discussion | vs | Review and document revisions to our LinkedIn strategy |
| Discuss organizational values | vs | Each meeting participant will have provided a specific example of how we are living an organizational value |
| Review our strategic plan | vs | Progress on each of the goals in our strategic plan will have been measured and documented |
Notice that each of the outcomes are much more specific when compared to the corresponding agenda item. And, with that specificity comes a significantly more focused conversation that saves time and increases relevance. It’s amazing to watch my clients’ meetings become more powerful and efficient when they simply employ this tip.
So, when you’re preparing for your next meeting, ask yourself this question: “What, specifically, do we want to accomplish by the end of the meeting?” Then, document your responses as outcomes on your agenda, review them with your meeting participants at the beginning of the meeting, and drive the conversation toward those outcomes. Simple and powerful.
Of course, there are lots of other tips to strengthen meetings. But without a set of clearly defined outcomes, all of the other tips lose power.
Here are some resources to help you run more effective meetings:
- A sample meeting agenda that highlights outcomes
- Death by Meeting by Pat Lencioni
- Richard Lent’s web site and his book, Meeting for Results Tool Kit. Richard is a consultant that specializes in running effective meetings.
Eric Ryan is the co-founder of Mission Met LLC, a training and consulting firm that provides strategic planning services and software to leaders of small organizations. He has led the creation of strategic planning software specifically for nonprofit organizations and is writing a book about strategic planning for small nonprofits. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wonderful wife, two hilarious kids, and about a dozen pets (if you count the fish!). He coaches little league baseball and loves to camp and hike with his family.