Effective Team

Meetings

“A meeting is an event when the minutes are kept and the hours are lost”

You will only have one week this year for your team meetings(maybe even less)

Ineffective meetings cost $37 Billioneach year in lost productivity(37% of meetings start late too!) $37 Billion

Of employees say meetings are theBiggest time waster in the office2014 Salary.com survey47%

1 week

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What does better look like?(and how do the best of the best do it?)

• Starts with the “low-lights” (ie. Problems)

• Believes most meetings start with the “highlights”and don’t get to the real issues until the end…

• 60% of meeting time should be open discussion

• Brings a spiral-bound notebook to every meeting

• Crosses them off one by one, rips out the page after each page is complete

• If 6 items takes 10 minutes, one hour is done

• Kept meetings as small as possible

• Felt too many minds in the room diluted simplicity (not surprising APPLE, king of simple)

• Once declined dinner with Obama because of too many on the guest list

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• Hates “Social Cohesion”, tendency for people to find consensus because it “feels good”

• Prefers that people respectfully challenge each other even if it’s uncomfortable or exhausting

• Has a “2 Pizza rule”, invite only enough for 2 pizza’s

Larry Page

• Sent out company wide email in 2011 on meetings• No more than 10 people per meeting• EVERYONE has input or they shouldn’t be there

• No Decision should ever wait for a meeting• If the meeting has to happen for the decision

schedule it immediately

• Always invites a high-performer to his meetings who “doesn’t belong”

• He calls this “officer training” similar to how officers on Nuclear Submarines have to know how to do everyone’s job before they become an officer

Phil Libin

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75% of the same people believe it's appropriate to read texts or emails during the same meetings

No Notebook. No Phone.No Pen. No Computer.

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…this meansno Powerpoint

One Hour Meeting = One Hour Preparation

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• Book your meeting room for30 minutes prior to start

• Get in there early.• Prep the room.

• Prep the whiteboard• Try a number play (write 3 numbers)• Write the agenda again• Do a “fill in the blank exercise”• Get the team up there too• Don’t be shy of objects / metaphors

• Start ON time every time. People will take notice.• Don’t “catch up” anyone that shows up late (their bad!)• Ask someone “would you mind shutting the door?”• SMILE BIG.• Don’t dial anyone in if possible (tell them you will “update them

after”

One Hour Meeting = Kick Ass Agenda

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Comprehensive Meeting Handout

Posted to Chatter -1 Day Printed and Handed before meeting Visual Callouts to RM’s Visual welcome to guests (pix, title) Updated $$$ Selling Events / updated weekly Simple 3-5 bullet point agenda “How are we doing?” “cool tools” Rotating area (bottom right) Inspirational quote

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Running a “natural” feeling meeting(covert research is necessary)

Know this before you start your meeting How were your reps weekends? What did they do? Any birthdays this week? Any big wins last week? What’s the gossip/news around the office

I like to: Avoid the “personal / professional” win starter- If you must do it, get more creative (dream vacation…best movie

in the history of movies, what animal would you be and why)I prefer to: lead with a conversation…”You were in xyz location this weekend, Joe

how was that? Did anyone else do anythingfun this weekend? Did anyone read that post…

25% of the meeting

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Leading a dialogue and discussion

Let them arrive your conclusion (it’s like selling!)If the team decides it and you just recognizewhat they have realized, they will believe in it

Break up side discussions quickly, but compassionately“Guys, I just want to be respectful of xyz, who is talking…”

Coax the team into self-policing bullies or dominating personalities“Thank someone as a transition if they self-police someone else…”

Own the flow of the discussionIf it’s time to shift the discussion, say “I WANT to move on to the next topic. Let’stable this for now.” REMEMBER: YOU ARE ACTUALLY THE BOSS

50% of the meeting

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Open Topics, Guests Input, End it Early

Open TopicsIf you have stuck to the timeline, you now have 25% of yourmeeting remaining. Why not open the floor up to let the teamspark ideas?

Guest VisitorsI generally only allow guests 5 minutes of my team meeting. Thisis almost 10% of the meeting, so I ask them to condense to 5. TheyALWAYS ask for 10. Ask them for what they are covering in advance.

End It EarlyWhile you should always end on time, if you covered everything,end the meeting early. “Give Time Back”

25% of the meeting

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Create Intrigue and Excitement. Meetings Suck. Yours don’t have to.

Make ‘em Think (Numbers, pictures, creative agendas, mystery guests, objects)

I LOVE putting up 3 numbers on the board to kick things off. Ask them what they thinkThe numbers are….”close…almost. Any other ideas? Wow, you guys are almost there”These numbers should be relevant to what they are facing/dealing with.

Get Away. Often. (I typically take the team offsite 4-6x per year – 10% of the time)

One of my best team meetings ever was held at the Tate Modern museum in London. I putteams of 3 together and the RM’s had to take pix of art that best reflected certain challengesWe were facing. They had to post to Instagram and use a hashtag I gave them. We thenmet and explained the “why” behind our choices at the Museum.

Let them Lead. (every rep should lead at least 1 meeting per year)

Challenge each person on your team to lead a meeting. Emphasize their strengths,have them focus on areas they want to develop. Help them architect the meeting.

Own the energy. Teams don’t create energy. They feed off each other’s energy. But you are the catalyst.

Appendix + references

Polite meetings are a waste of time (2011) Bill GatesHow to Run Meetings Effectively (2012) Larry Page11 tricks famous executives use to run meetings (2014) Jeff Bezos, ,Steve Jobs, Sheryl Sandberg12 meeting mistakes that cost us $37 Billion a yearHow to Overcome Unproductive Meetings (2014)The Scourge of Meeting Latecomers (2013)Jeff Bezos 2 Pizza RuleCorporate Visions – Grab Attention with Word and Number Plays (2006 OLD!)Don’t let meetings suck your time (2012)