Why are Many Meetings a Waste of Time?

Meetings are absolutely essential to the success of any organization. They are the glue that pulls people together for a short period of time. But in many companies, meetings are pathetic and create little or no value. It shocks me to see the number of companies that don’t even have weekly meetings to keep executives or managers on track.

 To get and keep aligned and focused, most teams need to meet at least once a week.  In The Rockefeller Habits  methodology I use with clients, they meet every day.

People usually stop having meetings because they feel it’s a waste of time – and they’re often right. We’ve all been there. Some people just want to talk about things. There are no decisions being made. There’s nobody taking notes about commitments. You’re just having a chit-chat. You feel like you’d do better across the street at the Starbucks having a coffee.

Leading meetings is a skill as valuable as being able to write or build something. Meetings are Business 001, even before Business 101. You need an agenda. Along with that agenda, here’s my list of basics for a good meeting.

• Start on time and end promptly, too
• Have people be prepared to share what they need to share
• Lead the meeting, to move it ahead
• Redirect off-topic discussions to another time and place
• Make tangible decisions at the meeting
• Take notes about all decisions or commitments, and note the date those items will be completed
• Most importantly, you must keep your meeting on track: cut people off politely who are long-winded or off topic

That last basic requires a bit of finesse.  Here are some of the techniques I use:

• Tell people up front that you will cut them off, so they are not surprised or offered
• Use phrases like “take 10 seconds to finish up your point.” Or, “How does that relate to what we’re talking about here?”
• Say to the group, “Last comment. We need to make a decision.”

Decisions lead to results. Write down those decisions and follow up at next week’s meeting. Once you make a decision and commitments, then you can talk about it—after the meeting.

 Coach Kevin’s Challenge:

In the end, your meetings need to create tangible value for all that attend…

• What is keeping your meetings from being as valuable as they could be?
• Ask at the end of your meeting how effective it was. Rank your meetings on a 1-10 scale.
• Make a list of 3 points right now that would make your meetings a 9.5.

In-N-Out Burger

One of my favorite business strategies is to leverage your relationships with your customers. On my recent trip to Mexico, I saw that strategy working for In-N-Out Burger.

You might know about the loyalty to these burgers. On our bus ride down to Encinada, 40 people were raving about them. Even before we got on the bus, they were saying, “We’re going to In-N-Out. You gotta eat there, it’s great!” Never in my life have I seen so many people get excited about a hamburger joint. People were evangelizing, saying how cool it was. So much so, that there was really no choice. I had to go.

If you haven’t gone, you get a burger, fries, and a drink or milkshake. And that’s their whole menu. It was an incredibly efficient business, and nice to see something so darn simple. Because it’s so simple, it’s easy for people to get behind it and tell the story. In-N-Out’s story is so simple that people go crazy about it.

This story is the subject of new book about In-N-Out.  I read the book review in BusinessWeek, and the article notes that a lot of the success comes from the fact that In-N-Out didn’t mess it up. They managed to stay true to their values and keep it very simple. I loved the marketing they did with free bumper stickers, where the company used spotters to enter drivers with the stickers in a vacation contest. They managed to make their story into a cult of hamburger lovers.

The story about the burgers was not only dead-on, but these customers were able to articulate it in a way that engaged me.

Coach Kevin’s Challenge

What would it take to get your customers out there, getting excited about your business like In-N-Out’s customers do? What is the simple message you would love everyone say about you?