The 4 Biggest Myths About Meetings Today
Meetings are expensive.
Meetings are often wasteful.
Meetings often are designed to ignore or overlook good ideas.
Meetings often lead to bad decisions:
Groupthink – Unspoken norm of agreeing to not disagree with ‘highest power’
Confidence Bias – We think we know more that we do, and make big decisions based on misinformation or limited information
Subjectivity – Using non evidence-based information; ignoring evidence
Escalation of Commitment – With so much time, effort, resources expended, we ignore glaring red flags.
Most Knowledgeable Not at Table – Same group of execs makes decisions that impact others, without fully understanding impact to employees, customers, etc.
To address bad decision-making in meetings:
Create Ground Rules – list non-negotiable rules for every participant; be clear on roles as part of meeting attendance. Include everyone comes prepared, everyone shares facts or ideas to help the agenda, no talking over another, no side-bar discussions, leaders do not share views until every non-leader has opportunity, how decisions will be agreed upon, create team roles (Scribe, Devil’s Advocate, Facilitator, etc.) etc.
Define Purpose – to generate ideas, to solve problem, to celebrate success, to provide status update, to decide/approve/allocate resources
Early Agenda – Give enough notice that invitees can provide list of others who would be of value to participate. Allow people to waive out of meeting if they don’t see this as best time spent.
Create Clear Agenda – Identify specific topics and what questions are to be answered. This will give the more introverted participants a chance to process and plan. This will also allow meetings to finish early once questions have been satisfactorily answered.
Add Social Aspect – To support team dynamics.
Choose All Good Options – Often, only one option is moved forward in a meeting. Sometimes it is the option you did not choose. If there are meeting members who want to explore 2nd or 3rd options, allow them to do so for a few days or weeks. Worst case, they learned new information; best case, they have other options should the one approved not bring desired results.
Require Meeting Feedback AT Meeting – Leaders need to be comfortable in being challenged. If you believe you are, create a rule that requires anyone at the meeting to challenge any other participant when they are dismissive, or disrespectful, or if they are not following specific rules. This builds trust and creates dialogue for optimal decision making.