The Meeting is Dead - Long live the Meeting

The traditional business meeting is dead. And if it hasn’t died in your business yet, prepare yourself for a sad passing? But there is no need to get despondent. By letting go of the Old meeting, you can make way for a new style of meeting. The results experienced by early adopters are showing measurable returns from the vast investment in human capital tied up in meetings across the business community.

New meetings are delivering heightened levels of engagement and energy, faster ‘buy-in’ to change, and improved knowledge sharing and decisioning all of which are leveraging the time and investment spent in face to face interactions.

The death of Old Meetings

Should one care that the Old Meeting is dead. Absolutely. Until today, countless hours have been spent in meeting rooms, trying to keep it alive. People have been turning up, sitting around big tables in small rooms, listening to divergent conversations, trying to make useful input, sometimes struggling to stay engaged, sometimes deferring to senior managers present, agreeing to decisions and trying to make sense of it all at the coffee station later.

The amount of time dedicated to the traditional meetings has been a major investment for organisations. Some simple maths suggests that up to 20% of total expenses are invested in meetings. (see Insert 1). Yet for all that investment, the returns are questionable. According to frequent reports and observation, the existing approach to meetings regularly fails to

- engage and energise participants
- draw out creativity and input from all stakeholders
- facilitate deep learning and knowledge sharing
- build focus and alignment across groups
- generate ownership for decisions and action

Insert 1

A quick formula for calculating the extent of investment in meetings is as follows. Multiply the percentage of time a typical middle manager in your business spends in meetings (say, 40%) with the proportion of total business expenses allocated to staff salary (say 50%). This provides an estimated % of total business costs spent in meetings, assuming the middle manager’s time in meetings is a rough average across the business. Eg. 40% x 50% = 20% (of total business expenses invested in meetings)

So what has led to this limited return, and what new approaches can breath life into business meetings to harness the potential that sits around the table.

Old Meeting dynamics

A number of cultural and communication issues work imperceptibly to undermine the effectiveness of meetings. By examining four underlying factors, it is possible to identify areas for potential improvement. These limiting factors include

1. Silos
2. Hierarchical influences
3. Knowledge sharing processes
4. Decision making processes

1. Silos

Silos built up between structural groupings are a result of forces well beyond the environment of meetings. However, meetings can perpetuate silos and reinforce the separateness of groups. This is exacerbated by - people from one group (silo) often not thinking to include people from another group (silo) in their meetings - where different stakeholders are invited, the communication and decision making processes are often shaped around one group’s agenda, and do not facilitate understanding and alignment in a true spirit of partnering

2. Hierarchy

Hierarchical structures are an important feature of organisational decision making and control. Boss-subordinate relationships are a natural by-product of hierarchy and these relationships have inherent power issues. These issues play out in many different contexts, and group meetings are one ‘public’ domain in which leaders may choose to exercise their ‘power’ in their relationships with their people. The leaders interactions include their input, decision making, influence of the group, encouragement of others and so on, and this has a significant bearing on the way their role as a leader is perceived. The specific scenarios that play out in one meeting add up across many meetings and ultimately have a wider impact on the culture and leadership across an organisation. The extent of awareness by leaders of the impact of their actions is a critical influence in the effectiveness of meetings to promote engagement, inclusion and participatory decision making.

3. Knowledge sharing processes

The extent of knowledge sharing that occurs within meetings is influenced by participants individual contributions, and the patterns and nature of group communication. The ideal meeting is one in which all valid information is shared for each topic discussed. Typical meetings involve one conversation happening at a time. As the group size increases beyond 5 or 6 people, single conversations can slow the opportunities for sharing and exchange. Meeting topics may be sensitive, and people can learn to with-hold valid information in the ‘public’ domain of a meeting. In many cases, conversations move haphazardly and anybody wishing to contribute can do so. This can also limit the opportunities for valid input from all participants

4. Decision making processes

Decision making is influenced by a multitude of forces, many that occur outside of meetings. Within meetings however, decisions are often made under time pressure. In the absence of emerging consensus, they can become a compromise of position thereby failing to deliver a sustainable, longer term solution or action. The 3 factors outlined above all impact decision making. For example, not all key stakeholders are present, not all valid information is shared or leaders make the decision on behalf of the group.

These 4 factors outlined above often act together leading to complex patterns of ineffectual communication and meeting dynamics. Typically, these have become part of the organisational culture and so they are not questioned or challenged. Having analysed some of the root causes of ineffectiveness in the typical, Old Meeting, we can now consider some alternative approaches which can inject new life into New Meetings.

New Meetings

More effective communication, knowledge sharing and decision making approaches draw on common sense fundamentals. These are alternatives to the above, and are addressed in the same 4 categories

1. Silos – awareness of cross ‘silo’ inclusion, and creation of partner oriented agendas (not just single stakeholder ambition) work to break down silo thinking and generate mutually beneficial outcomes
2. Hierarchy – processes that ‘level the playing field’, and self awareness of leaders who manage their own contributions in meetings both help to create wider engagement and partipation, thereby instilling greater ‘buy-in’ amongst all levels of people
3. Knowledge sharing – opportunities for multiple conversations, input from all participants, and open and candid exchanges that encourage sharing of all valid information all support deeper and more comprehensive knowledge sharing
4. Decision making – through wider inclusion and richer dialogue, more effective consensus based decision making emerges. Transparent decision making also enables synthesis and prioritising of previously generated opportunities so that group’s own the solutions.

Getting started with New Meetings

These principles can be put into practice through common sense and practical innovation. The intention should be to encourage involvement by a wider range of stakeholders, more easily create level playing fields amongst multi layered groups, allow more fluid and extensive knowledge sharing, and more transparent decision making.

Specific tools and practices such as Communication Cafe', Open Space, FAST and Great Wall all apply these principles. They share the common benefits of speeding up the communication processes, allowing deeper examination of relevant and core issues, more awareness of common themes and outcomes, and the ability to reach consensus decisions faster. Whilst these specific approaches require some detailed explanation and coaching, they are easily learned, so that within one or two experiences, groups are able to begin using them without need for external facilitation or coaching.

Conclusion

A desire to try New meeting approaches will come from firstly recognising the death of Old meetings. Their waning effectiveness despite large investments in time are no longer good business practice. New Meetings offer great opportunity to leverage the valuable human capital tied up in meeting rooms around the business world.

by
David Pointon
DaPo Consulting

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DaPo Consulting provides coaching and facilitation to help organisations introduce innovative communication practices to drive business transformation. Specific tools such as those mentioned above are part of the suite of products and services offered.