5 Best Practices of The Modern Meeting

1. 5 Best Practices of The Modern Meeting “Decision Making, Producing Committed Action Plans and Speed in a Meeting is the key to Success” - Balraj Basi

2. #1 Meet only to support a decision that has already been made • Make a preliminary decision before calling a meeting. If the decision is controversial, get buy-in from the group (via one-on-one conversations) before you make a decision. The Modern Meeting is a forum for debating them with the relevant stakeholders to arrive at final resolution. In the end, you make the decision and you own the outcome. • Speed is the key for the decisions. Sometimes it takes the conviction, the competence and the guts to make them. • Conflict: Welcome conflict. Spur debate that can open the door to intelligent decisions. So come to the table with open mind. Be confident about your decision and yet flexible. • Coordination: Decision can lead to a profound action, but that action happens only with proper coordination. Engage smart people in collaborative problem solving. e.g. support a plan or launch a product.

3. #2 Prepare an agenda • Meeting leader must create an agenda and set of background materials. It involves thinking through what is going to happen in the meeting, what the objectives are, who should be invited, what they should bring, and how long the meeting will last. • Agendashould clearly state the problem, the alternatives and the decision that is being discussed. It should outline exactly the sort of feedback requested and end with a statement of what this meeting will deliver if it’s successful. Most importantly, agendas demand preparation on the part of the attendees as well! • The modern meeting demands that you carefully think through all the different scenarios presented by the decision and come up with thoughtful responses.

4. #3 Move Fast. End On Schedule. • Strong deadlines force parties to resolve the hard decisions necessary for progress. With too much time, even the most unshakable decision will be reconsidered. Arguments turn circular; same points occur over and over again without real value added to the debate. More time leads to more doubt. More doubt leads to more anxiety. More anxiety makes the decision fall apart. • Sometimes a ten-minutes standup meeting gets buy-in and a decision is resolved. No chitchat, no sitting,… just high energy business! • Keep meetings as brief as possible and set a firm end time. Every minute that you are sitting with five or seven of our key people is a minute that’s costing us a fortune. Spend it wisely.

5. #4 Produce Committed Action Plans • The end result of a meeting is the decision and resulting action plan. This action plan should include at least the following: • What actions are we committed to? • Who is responsible for each action? • When will these action be completed? • A Scribe should record the meeting minutes and restate the action items to the group to gain agreement that they haven’t been misinterpreted. After the meeting, the leader should make sure participants are doing what they agreed to do, when they agreed to do. Hold them accountable. If you don’t who will?

6. #5 Work With Brainstorms, Not Against Them. • The brainstorm is the anti-meeting, the counterweight that sits on the other end of the scale. But it is so crucial to the success of Modern Meeting, giving the system balance. It is a place where the imagination is allowed to roam free and generate a plethora of ideas from which innovation can be born. • The goal of brainstorming is to break free from the fear that often restricts people’s creativity. The best way to get results is to make brainstorming fun and make a moment that lacks evaluation and criticism. It is safe to take risks here where people should have nothing to lose. • Brainstorming Principle: “Think Up! Shut Up!”

7. Other Important points about the Modern Meeting: • Refuse to be informational. Read the memo (email). It is mandatory. In many organizations, the only way to ensure that message is heard is to hold a meeting since a few people read very important emails!!.. The Modern Meeting cannot survive in an organization that fails to read. We must keep meetings about decisions. We all have to agree to cancel the informational meeting and must commit to reading the memos (emails). The memos should be complete document of your thoughts. Do not dribble your thoughts in an endless series of instant messages and emails. The memo must be worth reading and actually responding to.

8. Other Important points about the Modern Meeting: • Limit the number of attendees. Invite only the people absolutely necessary for resolving the decision that has been presented. With more people, it is difficult to come to any consensus on anything and a lot of time is wasted. Every member of any meeting should ask himself/herself these questions: • Will you be able to function if you read about the meeting after it is over? • If you are given a decision in advance we’re discussing, can you give me your opinion in advance? • Do you add any value by sitting in a meeting without participating? • Are you attending symbolically or simply to add your power? • From now on, if you are invited to a meeting where you don’t belong, please don’t attend!

9. What is not a meeting? • Conversations – we are good at it. But not a formal meeting. • Group work Sessions – Real work done simultaneously with other team members. The focus is creation, the purpose is clear and the session includes only team members who interact with each other on regular basis, anyway. • Brainstorms – designed for generating lots of ideas. These are so special. But not a meeting. • Can a memo, email or a simple phone call do the trick?.... Of course. Like war, meetings should be the last resort!

10. Conclusion • Traditional meetings are treated as just another form of communication such as email, memo, phone calls. The Modern Meeting exists for only one reason: To support a decision. • Brave decisions lead to brave organization; fearful decisions lead to a fearful one. We must structure the Modern Meeting so that bold decisions happen often, more quickly and those decisions are converted into movement that leads our organization forward – fearlessly. The Modern meeting is optimized with Agenda,Decisions, Brainstorming, Committed Action Items and Speed. • We all should play an important role to make the meetings more productive, efficient and effective.

11. Modern Meeting is Everyone’s Responsibility “The Modern Meeting is not just a role of the meeting leader but also responsibility of all participants who should contribute freely by making and owning a decision. The key is the Agenda,Decisions, Brainstorming, Committed Action Items and Speed when it comes to the meetings.” Balraj Basi

12. Questions? Suggestions? Feedback?