❯ Effective Meeting Systems

Meetings do not have to be a waste of time The right structure and systems can transform meetings. The meetings that everyone hates? Typically, they lack intentionality around their design. Reframing a meeting's intent and purpose, with a deliberate structure, leads to worthwhile meetings.

Let's start with what meetings can do for individuals and teams:

REINFORCE CULTURE

Meetings are a chance for leadership to reinforce culture. The agenda that is kept (or not), what recurring or ad-hoc topics are included (or not), who runs the meeting and how, and meeting frequency all give insight into what leadership values. Meetings should be deliberate in reinforcing the culture you want for your team, peers, and organization.

If you're an organization that values data-driven decisions, you might always bring in the Insights team for the latest research and analytics results. On the other hand, valuing creativity might lead to the recurring prompt, "what has inspired you lately?". If you value autonomy, you might choose to meet less frequently as a team.

TRAINING GROUNDS

A significant amount of meetings lacks relevance and participation from attendees. I've definitely drifted into multitasking during my fair share. I've stayed focused and engaged by reframing meetings as a training ground: what skill can I test out? Can I better influence my engineering or analytics partners? Does this story resonate? Can I get to action quicker with marketing?

Beyond that, pay attention to room dynamics. It's a treasure trove of useful signals: what's important to each person, who collaborates well together and who doesn't, and when and how does pushing back work, to name a few.

SYNC COLLABORATION

And, of course, make sure you're working on the right thing at the right time with the right people informed. Prevent the temptation to set up the monotonous, status-for-every-project, one-person-at-a-time project update. The highest return on time invested is having systemic methods for broadcasting new projects, updates on critical blocker or project changes, and a running list of current projects. For any meeting, capturing key actions and next steps is critical for smooth execution.

MEETING MIX AND STRUCTURE

The right mix of meetings can either help or hinder you and your team. Plotting your meetings against a spectrum of choices will show where you are strong and where there are gaps. I've given some examples below:

Firm-focused <- - - - - -> Customer-focused
Own Team <- - - - - -> Cross-functional
Executional <- - - - - -> Strategic
Solving Fire Drills <- - - - - -> Forward Looking
No Alignment & Action <- - - - - -> Alignment & Action
Learning <- - - - - -> Teaching
Drains Energy <- - - - - -> Gives Energy

I've led multiple teams within one company. Tactically, below is what has worked for me as a people leader for team operations. I trend towards less meetings rather than more. Not listed are cross-functional team meetings I sit on (as the voice for my particular function or department) and the meetings we turned into emails.

• One on Ones.
  Focus: Relationship-building, development, coaching.

• Leadership Team.
  Focus: Strategic decision-making, people conversations, cross-functional collaboration.

• Team Connects.
  Focus: Team building, team discussions, reinforce culture, share results or work.

• Quarterly Planning & Review.
  Focus: Set vision, directional focus and prioritization, broad learnings, team building.

• Ad-hoc & Quarterly Insights or Customer.
  Focus: develop customer understanding and market sense.

Each company puts importance on different stated (and unstated) values. Experiment with meetings and right-size to your organization. Strike the balance of highly aligned, loosely coupled—or, said another way, maximum results with the lightest touch.

Snapshot:

I pulled a toy truck out of my pocket. Hot Wheels. Royal blue. It was a forgotten trinket from bedtime cleaning. At this point in my son's life, this was is his world—a world made of toy trucks, small cars, and learning to repeat words. Time paused as I held his world in my hand. I could feel the weight of it.

Striving for better,

Justin Pichichero