Tuesday Tips

When you start driving your car, if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else. You’ll meander about. It’ll be inefficient. You won’t get where you want to be – because you don’t know where you want to be.

In exactly the same way… when you start a meeting…

… if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else. You’ll meander about. It’ll be inefficient. You won’t get where you want to be – because you don’t know where you want to be.

So, with meetings, where do you want to be at the end of it? What’s your destination?

Put simply, this destination will probably be one/both of two words beginning with A – during your meeting, you’ll:

1. ACTIONS – agree actions; and/or
2. AGREEMENT – make decisions

So, just as when you are driving in your car, you:

1. Decide your destination
2. Identify the best route to get there…

… with meetings, it should be the same:

1. Decide your destination – what ACTIONS and/or AGREEMENT do you want to happen as a result? Put this in the meeting’s title. So, if your meeting’s destination is to identify your #1 priority for Q1, the meeting’s title becomes ‘Meeting to agree our #1 priority for Q1’
2. Identify the best route to get there – write an agenda, that contains the only topics you need, to achieve this destination/outcome

And, of course, if this agenda will only take 15 minutes to cover, schedule the meeting for 15 minutes. Not the usual 30 or 60.

SatNav-ing meetings makes everything better. They’re more focused, shorter and more likely to work.

Action Point

Preview today’s meetings:

1. Better title – are they called ‘Meeting to agree (destination)’? If not, change the title
2. Shorter agenda – is there one?! Does it only contain the topics needed, to arrive at your destination?
3. Quicker duration – could it be shorter?!