| How to Persuade Your Boss to Shorten Meetings Aug 6th 2012, 16:00 No one is inspired by drawn out meetings filled with drowsiness and switching off––it's hardly a productive way to get any work agenda moving forward. And yet, meetings can end up this way when company or workplace culture subtly slides into assuming that long meetings mean results. While the occasional long meeting is probably necessary, the majority of long meetings could most likely do with a good prune to restore employee morale, increase creativity and improve efficiency. And often it's down to your boss to take the initiative to reroute meandering meetings but just how do you subtly and politely get your boss to realize this? - Sort your mindset before approaching your boss. Be absolutely sure that you're not the only one finding the meetings long and tedious––some people have a predisposed dislike of meetings in all shapes and forms, and this is a hindrance of its own sort. Carefully gauge the reactions of your co-workers after meetings and time the meetings for a few weeks, to be sure it's not just your who finds the meetings long. Bear in mind that meetings should be productive, interactive and enjoyable ways to bring everyone together. If that is not what is happening in your meetings and they are in fact unproductive time-suckers, then you're probably right to go about seeking shortened ones.
- Observe pre- and post-meeting behaviors. Make your own observations. Are people consistently getting to the meeting late? Are people on time but end up making idol chit chat while waiting for the boss or presenter to appear? Do you see people lingering around the table after the meeting is over or are participants anxiously keeping an eye on watches and tearing out the door the moment the meeting's closed? Most telling of all, are people actually saying they can't abide the long meetings they're subjected to?
- Look for any time-wasting behaviors not only before and after the meeting but during meetings. Are many meetings conducted like a runaway train where the moderator has no control and conversations often run off subject? Are people with no stake in the outcome adding their two cent's worth a lot of the time? Is there any grandstanding or tangential talk going on?
- Do some research into how meetings can be made more effective. You don't want to teach your boss to suck eggs but perhaps some well-placed examples of good meeting strategies will help you present a solid case when seeking to persuade your boss to hold shorter meetings. This can be achieved with background research on the best ways to run a meeting. The strategies may differ according to your industry, workplace practices and teamwork requirements, but there are some basic elements to making any meeting more efficient and less time-consuming:
- Focus on ways to reduce time-consuming meetings, and how to have more short ones in place of the longer ones. This approach can be a good way to compromise with a boss who expresses a preference for lots of regular meetings. You could suggest that only one or two of these meetings be long, while the rest are just short check-ins or catch-ups.
- Consider whether the meetings are being held just because of tradition. This entrenched reason for holding a meeting can be a real hold-up because it seems sacrosanct. Yet, it makes sense to point out that a meeting has become long due merely to tradition, as this might be the first time anyone's noticed or had the courage to say so.
- While you don't want to pretend you know more than your boss, it can sometimes be helpful to analyze the cost of holding long meetings. Talk to co-workers about what long meetings cost them in terms of time and meeting deadlines. Look at how much of the discussion in meetings is rambling or socializing dressed up as work. Even look at time spent getting to and from the meeting. As for your boss, the time spent in meetings can be considerable––for example, the Executive Time Use Project that showed chief executives spend about a third of work time in meetings.[1] That's an average of around 18 hours a week, not accounting for phone calls, business lunches and time spent preparing for meetings. Highlighting these costs might help to persuade your boss to start looking at ways to reduce long meeting times.
- Consider who needs to be at meetings. Again, tradition can dictate that more people than those actually needed end up at the meeting. The more there, the more prolonged a meeting can be.
- Socializing-at-work is often hidden under the guise of meetings. Management guru, the late Peter Drucker, once commented that "One either meets or one works––one cannot do both at the same time." Perhaps do some research into ways to bring together the team that don't involve meetings but still fulfill this desire to congregate, such as Friday afternoon nibbles and drinks. It's much nicer to acknowledge the socializing for what it is than to hide behind a meeting façade.
- Brainstorm some ideas to present to your boss for reduced meeting time. You're more likely to be persuasive if you present your boss with suggested solutions for ways to achieve shorter meetings than if you simply rock up complaining about meeting length interrupting your daily pondering. Using the research outcomes from the previous step to help you customize some ideas for making your workplace's meetings more effective and less lengthy. As well as tailoring ideas specific to your workplace, some general ideas you might find useful include:
- Only ask participants to meetings, especially where it is clear that a lot of attendees are not contributing for lack of knowledge of the area, or interest in it.
- Review the usefulness of regular meetings that have become fixtures (it's "that time of the week") rather than motivators or useful. Suggest their removal or minimization.
- Avoid meetings that simply rubber-stamp a decision that has already been agreed upon. If it's about sharing information, do so using emails or bulletins.
- Hold one monthly update meeting with everyone in the workplace to consolidate previously separate update meetings––unless the updates are sensitive, regardless of rank or branch, an update is an update.
- Schedule definite times for meetings and always start on time. Make it known by starting on time, every time that latecomers will miss the details and will have to catch up on missed information using their own initiative after the meeting. Moreover, the scheduled length for the meeting can be kept to by use of a timer. When it goes off, that's it.
- Create set agendas or purpose lists for meetings if they're not already in use. This causes meeting holders to think about the "why" of the meeting rather than the fact of a meeting. After making an agenda, have them question the items on the agenda to see if they really need a meeting. Another use for an agenda or list is to only hold a meeting when the agenda or list reach a set point––prior to that, there should be no cause for a meeting. Don't wait too long though––an overly long agenda can promote length and muddle!
- Don't let meeting participants sit down. If you really want to think outside the box, institute a "no sitting down" policy. No one gets too comfortable, which prompts participants to want to get down to business and move forward.
- Try canceling a regular meeting to see if anybody misses it or if the workload misses it.
- Consider the ways in which your boss might be letting down or improving the meeting procedure. Look at both the negative and positive elements of your boss' style in meetings. One of the keys to "managing up" is to focus on the strengths of your boss, to find the ways in which you can help to make these shine more, all while subtly discouraging the weaknesses. For example, your boss might be convinced that winging it in meetings is perfectly fine but as a result of the lack of an agenda, the meetings tend to ramble all over the place. Yet, your boss appears to be very good at getting to the nub of the issue through listening to others' input. This lets you try to find a way of introducing an agenda to all meetings to keep topics on track, stating that it'd help everyone running a meeting (and thereby not singling out your boss). And perhaps you could suggest splitting longer meetings into a series of shorter ones that focus on a single topic only, which can keep your boss on topic too. You can sell this one to your boss as being about ensuring that only those people most likely to contribute something relevant, useful or inspirational will attend the individual meetings, rather than having attendees distract the whole meeting from its purpose.
- Ask for a short chat with your boss. Be sure that your boss has some spare time set aside for you to talk effectively together. If this means getting a slot in his or her calendar, pencil it in. And, if you intend to have someone else accompany you, be careful. Unless you're sure he or she will add value, consider that your boss might feel outnumbered and could see this as "ganging up" or as personal criticism. On the other hand, in an environment that highly values team approaches, turning up with another team member might be perceived as confirming a commonly agreed upon problem in need of fixing.
- Be polite, respectful and to the point. It can be challenging to raise a subject about which your boss is meant to be the authority and the last word but faint heart never won anything, so be prepared. Begin by explaining that while you appreciate the opportunities to get together with others in the workplace to discuss, you're concerned that the meeting culture of the workplace appears to favour very lengthy meetings (do your best to use language that distances the "blame" for the long meetings from your boss). Briefly explain how this impacts you and some of the co-workers you've talked to. Express your desire for shorter meetings in order to give you and your fellow co-workers more time to get work done. At this point, be polite and ask your boss if he or she is interested in hearing about some of your researched ideas for ways to make meetings more dynamic and less lengthy. Take your cue from the boss' answer.
- Always remember your position in relation to your boss. It's hard managing people well and some bosses are easily threatened if they perceive that the staff feel that they could manage better. You'll go far by showing deference and respect along with your initiative. Be genuine, earnest and thoughtful. Most of all, understand that your boss may well feel the same as you but feels compelled for one reason or other to continue things the way they are––you might actually be presenting him or her with an employee-initiated solution, so it may eventually work out for both of you.
- Be ready for questions. Don't see questions defensively, even if they're used that way. Instead, view questions as an opportunity to explore the ideas together in greater depth, as part of your persuasion. And where possible, the more you can get your boss to think he or she came up with some of the solutions, the more likely they'll be adopted, so don't talk too much––and never interrupt. This is simply common courtesy that any person, boss or not, deserves.
- As much as possible, focus on the benefits of short meetings. Compile a list on paper if you can't remember––if needed, you can always offer to leave the list with your boss for reflection. In fact, if you're aware that your boss prefers to read things first and then discuss, make sure you have a few decently presented proposals on paper to ease the passage of your ideas. In this case, you can always suggest picking up the conversation after your boss has had an opportunity to read your information.
- Since persuasion of a boss is about "managing up", doing some reading on how to be a successful "intrapreneur" can be helpful. Such learning is never wasted!
- Suggest to your boss that you take on improved meeting effectiveness as a personal project. If there are some things your boss agrees would be a good idea, take the initiative to do whatever you can to help. This will reduce the burden on your boss, shows your willingness to follow through on your ideas and lets you monitor progress.
- Take any suggestions of your boss about shortening meeting times and run with them. Ideas with the boss' buy-in are already good-to-go and should be given priority. Support your boss and be willing to show that you do so openly.
- Offer to develop the draft of a new meetings policy or trial approach that will incorporate the ideas your boss has agreed upon with you. The beauty of offering to do this is that you get some room to be more creative during its development because it's just a "draft" and your boss has to okay it anyway. This lets you be bold and introduce any other like-ideas that perhaps weren't explored during your discussion with the boss. Explain that whatever you develop will be short, purposeful and considerate of all staff. When you do prepare it, provide a clear set of rules for meetings using the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple soothsayer) method. Number the meeting rules and write them in short, concise sentences, using descriptive but easy-to-understand language.
- As part of your offer, suggest that you continue discussing with staff to bring on board their suggestions. Be careful though, as you don't want to give the boss the impression this is turning into a mammoth circus of a project. Let your boss see that this won't take much time and won't consume you or other employees. For example, you could say that you'll use an online survey which gives anonymous results to gain insight from co-workers in a non-disruptive way. Help sell this idea by saying that you'll be looking for even better ideas for shortening meetings from the employees, showing that this means their buy-in.
- Look at the many possible alternatives to meetings. These are endless and again, dependent on your workplace needs, but some ideas include: make a phone/Skype call or a conference call, get feedback using online surveys, have a fun event after hours, send out updates by email or intranet update, use bulletin boards, create posters, etc. If you need input to an idea, one way to avoid a meeting is to leave a white board in an open office for brainstorming-at-your-convenience, allowing employees to pop in and out during the day as they please. This frees up meeting time and is good for the more reticent employees who can leave their idea unnoticed.
- Follow up with a memo confirming what you're doing and what you think will happen next. This will help to solidify the determination to shorten meetings and to find more creative ways to share information within the workplace. It also ensures that your efforts have the blessing of the boss.
- Track the results of meeting shortening measures. To help your boss see that the meetings are shorter and that productivity and creativity have benefited as a result, offer to track the results. Keep data on the amount of meetings being held before and after, as well as data on meeting duration and the level of satisfaction of meeting attendees and employees-in-general. Make use of survey tools and charts or graphs to compile this information easily. Again, this isn't meant to be a burden, just do enough to prove the point that less and shorter meetings are benefiting everyone. Gathering enough relevant data might take a few weeks or months, depending on the type of work your workplace does. Keep your boss posted so that he or she knows you haven't forgotten.
- Ask employees to complete a survey surrounding their efficiency level after meeting times have been shortened. You don't have to survey everyone after every meeting. Instead retrieve a random sampling to generate results.
- Request suggestions on how to improve the process. Continue to ask for suggestions and ideas from employees. Ideas generated before policy implementation may change as time goes on––for example, the notion of being able to wrap up meetings in 15 minutes may have looked like a good idea beforehand, but perhaps you've found that you really need 30 minutes to truly accomplish anything.
- Present the results and any relevant information to your boss to reinforce your shortened meeting experiment. Show how shorter meetings have improved staff morale, increased effectiveness and stimulated new ways of approaching the sharing of ideas and information. While discussing this verbally is the easiest approach, perhaps compile all of the relevant data into a list or chart for quick perusal––keep it clear and short. As well, create any documentation (such as "Our workplace's effective meetings guidelines") and visual reminders (such as a poster stating "The 3 rules of an effective meeting") needed to help ensure that shorter meetings are going to continue to the be the way forward in your workplace. Ultimately, realize that it takes time to change company culture but with the boss' support and evidence of the benefits, it'll soon begin to change for the better.
- When talking to your boss, if you have specific examples of how business was lost due to overextended meetings, reveal these but do so without casting blame on any individual. Look for such things as client inquiries being missed because employees were not at their desk or workers who became unfocused following (or before) the meeting and missed a business opportunity.
- Remember that even if you've blocked off 30 minutes for the meeting and you can accomplish your goal in 20, to leave early and not sit around chit chatting.
- Designate a specific meeting place (void of distractions such as phones, cell phones and computers). If meetings are held all over the office, in break rooms or certain employee's offices, consider designating one room as the meeting place (such as the board room). Cell phones, lap tops and any other distractions should be eliminated from this room to allow for a more focused meeting.
- Consider developing posters for meeting rooms that have reminders about such things as knowing the purpose of the meeting and keeping the meeting to its set time. Since people start taking these sorts of reminders for granted over time, change the poster style or colors now and then, to help people look again.
Edit Warnings - Be careful if your boss is the kind of person who holds lots of meetings to seem important and powerful. Only you can judge this from the context but if you do feel this is an issue, you'll need to tread with care when suggesting less and shorter meetings, as this could be perceived as a direct attack on his or her power base. All the same, it's not appropriate for this reason to be behind everyone else becoming unproductive. You may also find some co-workers feel this way about their attendance at meetings, so bear this in mind when doing surveys of co-workers.
- If you find that productivity slows or collaboration suffers as a result of reduced meeting times or amount, be confident enough to revise your plan. You may need to go through several attempts before you "get it right."
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