Effective meetings require preparation and forethought from the organizer

Ask any Software Engineer what they’re least favorite part of their job is, and on that list will be meetings. Meetings are crucial to bring people together to collaborate, share information, or make decisions, but are universally loathed.

How can we make meetings better? The key is proper preparation. For novel, important meetings, I will devote anywhere from 1 to 3 times the length of the meeting to prepare for it. So, for a 1 hour meeting, I’ll prepare anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. I don’t follow this rule for recurring meetings, but I do spend some time preparing for each meeting. When establishing a recurring meeting or a novel meeting, I’ll pause to consider 5 important elements: the meeting’s purpose, the outcome, who needs to be involved and who benefits from the meeting, how I will execute the meeting, and the role I will play in the meeting.

Purpose

First I consider why the meeting exists in the first place. What larger purpose does the meeting play? What would happen if the meeting didn’t occur at all? When we rush through scheduling meetings, clarifying the purpose the meeting serves is often the first thing we neglect. But if you want the meeting to be valuable, you need to clarify the value it provides both for your attendees and for your self.

Outcome

Second I consider what outcome does this meeting need to achieve? Is this an informational sharing meeting? Are we introducing a new change? Are we collaborating on a solution? Or are we making a decision? These are a few of the common outcomes I encounter, but there are many more. Be concrete in what outcome the meeting should achieve, that way you and the attendees know when the meeting is over. Otherwise, with an unclear outcome, the meeting risks filling all of the space we allot for it.

Who

Next I consider who benefits from this meeting. Who is the chief benefactor for this meeting? If the purpose and outcome are clear, who benefits from the meeting should be obvious. As a facilitator, it is helpful for me to keep the benefactor in mind as I hold the meeting to center myself and consider how they would think of the progress we are making.

Also part of ‘who’, I consider who needs to attend this meeting. Who has the information we need in this meeting? Who needs to be present to hear the information? Who must make the decision? Understanding the purpose and outcome first helps us consider who is necessary for the meeting so we can limit the attendee list to the smallest group possible while still achieving the outcome.

Execute

With the outcome and the attendee list formulated, I then consider how I will execute the meeting. If collaboration is necessary, how will we engage all of the attendees? What is the journey that I and the attendees must take together in this meeting to ensure we reach the end of the meeting and achieve our objective? What conversations, questions, or decisions need to be made along the way, and how do I best support the group for those discussions?

Role

Finally, I consider what my role is in the meeting. As the organizer of the meeting, am I in a pure ‘facilitator’ role, or is there some secondary role that I may play, such as coach? What else must I do to prepare for the role(s) that I will be playing? What dangers may I encounter with the role(s) I am playing and if I am playing multiple roles, what confusion or problems may that cause?

Conclusion

Meeting preparation is crucial in setting the ground work for a successful meeting. Preparation will give you, as the meeting organizer, increased confidence stepping into the room that you’re meeting for the right reasons and working towards the proper outcome. For the next meeting you organize, consider POWERing through the preparation to make it a better meeting.