HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter (HBR Guide Series)
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About this ebook
Make every minute count.
Your calendar is full, and yet your meetings don’t always seem to advance your work. Problems often arise with unrealistic or vague agendas, off-track conversations, tuned-out participants who don’t know why they’re there, and follow-up notes that no one reads—or acts on. Meetings can feel like a waste of time. But when you invest a little energy in preparing yourself and your participants, you’ll stay focused, solve problems, gain consensus, and leave each meeting ready to take action.
With input from over 20 experts combined with useful checklists, sample agendas, and follow-up memos, the HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter will teach you how to:
- Set and communicate your meeting’s purpose
- Invite the right people
- Prepare an achievable agenda
- Moderate a lively conversation
- Regain control of a wayward meeting
- Ensure follow-through without babysitting or haranguing
Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from a source you trust. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
Harvard Business Review
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Reviews for HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter (HBR Guide Series)
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finished reading in approx 7 h showing how engaging this book is, it contains so many practical ready-to-implement tips + i love how it also provides us with sample sentences on how to interject a discussion, on how to push for clarity etc. Recommended for people who want to have more time to get the job done rather than trapped in meeting by meeting trying to identify next actions while losing all the precious time we should’ve spent to action! :-)
Book preview
HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter (HBR Guide Series) - Harvard Business Review
HBR Guide to
Making Every Meeting Matter
Harvard Business Review Guides
Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
The titles include:
HBR Guide to Better Business Writing
HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case
HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business
HBR Guide to Coaching Employees
HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict
HBR Guide to Delivering Effective Feedback
HBR Guide to Finance Basics for Managers
HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need
HBR Guide to Getting the Right Job
HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done
HBR Guide to Leading Teams
HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter
HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work
HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across
HBR Guide to Negotiating
HBR Guide to Networking
HBR Guide to Office Politics
HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations
HBR Guide to Project Management
HBR Guide to
Making Every Meeting Matter
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Title: HBR guide to making every meeting matter.
Other titles: Harvard business review guides.
Description: Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press, [2016] |
Series: Harvard Business Review guides
Identifiers: LCCN 2016025614 | ISBN 9781633692176 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Business meetings—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Business meetings—Planning—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Classification: LCC HF5734.5 .H397 2016 | DDC 658.4/56—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025614
eISBN: 9781633692183
What You’ll Learn
We all know what we’re supposed to do to run meetings effectively, but we seldom do them well. Why? Perhaps we think it’s just not worth the time to clarify what we hope to accomplish, craft an agenda, handpick participants, issue prework, and send out follow-up notes that detail key decisions and next steps. So we run meetings off the cuff or saddle participants with an overly ambitious agenda we have no hope of working through. Other meeting problems feel beyond our control. People nod their heads in our decision-making meeting but then show their true feelings with their lack of follow-through. Derailers. Latecomers. Blowhards. Nonparticipants. People who bring their agenda to your meeting.
The best way to prevent or overcome any of these obstacles is thoughtful and thorough preparation. This guide offers tips and scripts for curbing inappropriate behavior and making your meetings easier to prepare for, more efficient to conduct—and more productive.
You’ll learn how to:
Determine whether you even need to meet
Prepare a realistic agenda
Identify why you’re meeting—and articulate your purpose to attendees
Orchestrate group decision making
Prevent implementation roadblocks by giving participants equal airtime
Cope with chronic latecomers, windbags, and other people problems
Turn around a bad meeting
Run any type of meeting—from a status stand-up to a one-on-one walking check-in to a strategy off-site
Get the most out of digital meeting tools
Hold people accountable without hounding or micromanaging
Keep the momentum going with prompt meeting follow-up
Contents
Preface: The Condensed Guide to Running Meetings
The 5-minute version of everything you need to know.
BY AMY GALLO
SECTION ONE. Prepare
1.Do You Really Need to Hold That Meeting?
A simple tool to help you decide.
BY ELIZABETH GRACE SAUNDERS
2.Stop Calling Every Conversation a Meeting
We need a more effective vocabulary.
BY AL PITTAMPALLI
3.If You Can’t Say What Your Meeting Will Accomplish, You Shouldn’t Have It
Set a purpose by answering two questions.
BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE
4.How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting
A productive meeting begins here.
BY ROGER SCHWARZ
5.The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings
A filter to help you articulate your purpose.
BY ANTHONY TJAN
6.The 50-Minute Meeting
Build in time for transition.
BY DAVID SILVERMAN
7.The Magic of 30-Minute Meetings
Give yourself less time, and you’ll get more done.
BY PETER BREGMAN
8.Meetings Need a Shot Clock
Tackle your agenda by beating the buzzer.
BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE
9.Are There Too Many People in Your Meeting?
Probably. A rule of thumb.
SECTION TWO. Conduct
10.Before a Meeting, Tell Your Team That Silence Denotes Agreement
Speak now or forever hold your peace.
BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE
11.Establish Ground Rules
Set expectations for participation.
12.Reach Group Decisions During Meetings
You have options for gathering input and moving forward.
13.The Right Way to Cut People Off in Meetings
Jellyfish!
BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE
14.Dealing with People Who Derail Meetings
Having an explicit purpose will get you back on track.
BY ROGER SCHWARZ
15.Refocus a Meeting After Someone Interrupts
Listen, validate, and redirect.
BY REBECCA KNIGHT
SECTION THREE Participate
16.Polite Ways to Decline a Meeting Invitation
Preserve your time—and the relationship.
BY LIANE DAVEY
17.How to Interject in a Meeting
Useful phrases to introduce ideas, disagree, and express confusion.
BY JODI GLICKMAN
18.Stuck in a Meeting from Hell? Here’s What to Do
Don’t just sit there and suffer.
BY MELISSA RAFFONI
19.7 Ways to Stop a Meeting from Dragging On
Break free from the silent majority.
BY JOSEPH GRENNY
20.When Your Boss Is Terrible at Leading Meetings
Three tactics for turning things around.
BY PAUL AXTELL
SECTION FOUR. Close and Follow Up
21.The Right Way to End a Meeting
With closure.
BY PAUL AXTELL
22.Don’t End a Meeting Without Doing These 3 Things
Make sure everyone’s on the same page.
BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE
SECTION FIVE. Specific Types of Meetings
23.What Everyone Should Know About Running Virtual Meetings
Just three things.
BY PAUL AXTELL
24.How to Run a Great Virtual Meeting
Rules matter more.
BY KEITH FERRAZZI
25.Conduct a Meeting of People from Different Cultures
Help them step outside their comfort zones.
BY REBECCA KNIGHT
26.Making Global Meetings Work
Inconvenience everybody equally.
BY JUNE DELANO
27.Give Your Standing Meetings a Makeover
Do away with the same old, same old.
BY MARTHA CRAUMER
28.How to Do Walking Meetings Right
Boost your creative thinking and engagement.
BY RUSSELL CLAYTON, CHRISTOPHER THOMAS, AND JACK SMOTHERS
29.Stand-Up Meetings Don’t Work for Everybody
Are they speedy, or sexist, ageist, and height-ist?
BY BOB FRISCH
30.Leadership Summits That Work
Stop putting your top people to sleep.
BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE
Appendix A: Meeting Preparation Checklist
Appendix B: Sample Agendas
Appendix C: Meeting Follow-Up Checklist
Appendix D: Sample Follow-Up Memo
Appendix E: Digital Tools to Make Your Next Meeting More Productive
There’s an app for that.
BY ALEXANDRA SAMUEL
Index
PREFACE
The Condensed Guide to Running Meetings
by Amy Gallo
Editor’s note: Here’s where to start if you need to organize a meeting soon—and you don’t have a ton of time to prepare, but you want to do it right. When you’re not so pressed for time, take a look at the rest of the book, which expands on themes raised here.
We love to hate meetings. And with good reason—they clog up our days, making it hard to get work done in the gaps, and so many feel like a waste of time.
Paul Axtell, author of Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations, says that this is a major pain point for nearly every manager he works with. People are absolutely resigned,
he says. They have given up on the hope that it could be different.
Axtell and Francesca Gino, author of Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan and a professor at Harvard Business School, weigh in here on whether much of the conventional wisdom on meetings holds true.
Keep the meeting as small as possible. No more than seven people.
Though research does not point to a precise number that’s ideal, there is evidence to suggest that keeping the meeting small is beneficial,
says Gino. For one thing, you’re better able to notice body language when there are fewer people. In a group of 20 or more, you can’t keep track of the subtle cues you need to pick up,
says Axtell. And if you want people to have the opportunity to contribute, limit attendance. In Axtell’s experience, limiting it to four or five people is the only way to make sure every one has the chance to talk in a 60-minute meeting.
The challenge with large meetings isn’t just that everyone won’t have a chance to talk but that many of them won’t feel the need to. When many hands are available, people work less hard than they ought to,
explains Gino. Social psychology research has shown that when people perform group tasks (such as brainstorming or discussing information in a meeting), they show a sizable decrease in individual effort from when they perform alone.
This is known as social loafing
and tends to get worse as the size of the group increases.
That’s not to say that your 20-person meeting is doomed for failure. You just need to plan more carefully. The degree of facilitation has to go up,
says Axtell. You have to be more thoughtful about getting input from the group and reading people in the room. You need someone who is masterful at managing the conversation.
Ban devices.
Both experts agree this is a good idea, for two reasons. First, we know devices distract us. Gino points out that many people think they can multitask—finish an e-mail or read through their Twitter feed while listening to someone in a meeting. But research shows they really can’t. Recent neuroscience research makes the point quite clear on this issue. Multitasking is simply a mythical activity. We can do simple tasks like walking and talking at the same time, but the brain can’t handle multitasking,
says Gino. In fact, studies show that a person who is attempting to multitask takes 50% longer to accomplish a task and makes up to 50% more mistakes.
And those who pick up their devices during meetings may well be the worst multitaskers. "The research finds that the more time people spend using multiple forms of media