How to Run a Meeting—Including When Not to Meet at All

Every morning, the team at Shapes Unlimited in Northeast Ohio gathers for a 10-minute update on the manufacturer of aluminum fences and related products. Aside from reviewing what’s shipping, what’s due, and what’s late, the meetings also provide an opportunity to go over safety near-misses and conduct polls on topics that demand group input. After the staff leaves, President and CEO Doug Rende typically remains with the leadership for five to 10 more minutes to dive deeper into topics brought up at the first meeting. 

“It’s our time to review and discuss critical topics that help us get better every day,” Rende says of the two meetings.

These daily get-togethers exemplify what consultants say are several best practices that leaders should employ when they convene. Rende’s meetings are held at a consistent time and are attended only by those who need to be there. The people in charge of reporting the necessary numbers make sure they’ve collected the data beforehand. Topics and tone differ based on who’s attending. And everyone is encouraged to contribute to what’s discussed.

It takes preparation and discipline to run a good meeting. Here are ground rules you can follow to host a worthwhile conclave—including thoughts on whether to meet at all.

1. It’s a Group Thing. Good meetings get everyone involved, if only to listen actively but hopefully also to contribute. Meetings are for informing, but also for discussions and buy-in. If all you really want is a top-down recitation, write an email instead.

2. Hold Them in the Morning. That’s when people are at their most attentive, leadership consultant and speaker Lynne Jensen-Nelson says. But don’t make it the first action of the day; give people time to check e-mails and phone messages before they gather. That said …

3. Arrive on Time. Leaders who walk in late to convene a meeting are giving the impression that the meeting doesn’t matter much.

5. Create an Agenda. This applies whether the meeting has two or 2,000 attendees. If it’s a regular meeting, write a regular agenda so that all know what to expect from the meeting—and from themselves, particularly if they are charged with providing information. If a holiday or out-of-town commitment makes an in-person meeting impossible, send an email that follows the same agenda. 
6. Get People Talking. “Good bosses don’t dominate the conversation, they sponsor it,” organizational development expert Dena Cordova-Jack says. “They create the space. They set the tone. They protect the room from idea assassins and status quo worshippers”
7. Ask Open Questions. Back when Jensen-Nelson managed a large group, she would ask questions like, “What are the best practices you found this week?” Cordova-Jack likes leaders who respond to a comment with “Interesting … tell me more.” Encourage people to talk about their victories. Once they get talking and have shown their worth, staffers are more likely to speak openly about the company’s challenges.

7. Impose a Time Limit. Productivity gurus often praise the “Pomodoro Technique,” in which you work intensely for 50 minutes and then take a 10-minute break, or work 25 minutes on, five off. (The technique is named for the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that its inventor used in school; pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato.) Whatever time limit you set, keep it. Shapes Unlimited’s meetings last 10 minutes. Jensen-Nelson believes an hour should be the maximum. Variations in between call for holding meetings in which everyone stands or everyone goes on a walk.

9. End with a Call to Action/Deliverables. The all-staff Shapes meetings leave the team well aware of what they need to get done before quitting time. In other places, the meeting’s result might be a decision to launch an effort. The goal is to get people walking together down the same path, aware of a common goal. One way to help do that is to take notes during the meeting and distribute them later, emphasizing the decisions taken. Today’s meeting software makes that task fairly easy to accomplish.
10. Employ Alternatives. Tech-savvy groups are known for their embrace of project management software like Slack. If your meeting participants are already engaged in a task, have good writing skills, and might work remotely, this might work for you.

Meetings often fail because of human nature. Like many leaders, Jensen-Nelson remembers when she would hold a meeting at which everyone was asked to talk, only to have an attendee who was mute at the meeting come to her later in her office and spout out opinions. “You need to set people up in a way that they don’t do that,” she says. “I found I had to say, ‘I’d love to have you bring this up in the meeting. Your voice is important.’” 

In the highly regarded management book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, author Patrick M. Lencioni calls “absence of trust” the No. 1 assassin killing a meeting. In a world where a big percentage of people don’t like to argue or interrupt, and another share of people need time to organize their thoughts before they’ll talk, it’s your job to make the meeting an open place where everyone progresses because all information—and every viewpoint—is valued.