I once worked with Jane B.
Like many in the corporate world, Jane had grown frustrated with the inefficiencies and wasted hours of the meetings she participated in.
She wasn’t the kind of person who’d get discouraged, though, and she decided to remedy this, starting with the meetings she was driving.
After thoughtful research, she settled on an approach that would soon become the gold standard in our group.
People across our teams would praise how smoothly the discussion went in her meetings, how straight to the point the conversations and how clear the outcome and next steps were.
What was so special about Jane’s meetings?
Not the agenda. Jane didn’t have any. Nor the action items in meeting minutes. There were none.
Instead, Jane got to the essence of what a meeting is about. She focused on enabling synchronous discussions. Yes, people were talking to each other!
It sounds simplistic, but this is probably the most forgotten meeting golden rule.
I still see so many meetings taking place when a presentation, a written proposal, a memo, or an anonymous survey posted your preferred collaboration tools would have sufficed.
Talking to each other isn’t enough, though. You need some structure for a meeting to succeed. But the more streamlined it is, the better.
Here are the four rules Jane followed diligently:
#1 – One-liner
So, instead of sharing full agendas, Jane focused on one single topic for each meeting. And guess what? Anyone could find that single topic in a one-liner: the meeting invite’s name. No surprises there.
#2 – A select audience
Jane also ensured she’d limit the audience to those who could actively contribute to the topic. She wasn’t shy about asking people to leave during the meeting if they were not adding value.
#3 – The right introduction
Jane would ensure that her introductions would set the proper stage and remind everyone about the topic at hand, plus good rules of engagement for effective teamwork.
#4 – One strong facilitator
Last but not least, Jane would always have someone actively facilitating the discussion who didn’t have a stake in the outcome of the chosen topic. It wasn’t necessarily her. Great facilitators ensured everyone would participate and no one would step over or interrupt. They would also know how to bring closure and recap the next steps.
Jane didn’t choose the comfort of well-established meeting techniques like agenda-setting, note-taking, written action items, and classic follow-up.
Instead, she tackled the more challenging and riskier part. Because a one-liner is more difficult to produce than a full agenda. Selective invites can create resentment if not careful. The wrong context-setting can derail a meeting from the very first minute. And a lousy facilitator will ruin the best discussion in seconds.
But with practice and determination, Jane and a few key partners eventually mastered their craft and succeeded.
I only worked for a limited time with Jane. She’d soon be promoted and ended up as the CEO of a very successful company. She left me these few gems, and I’ve done my best to apply her key principles to my meetings ever since.
I have to admit; I have not been as extreme as Jane. I still like setting an agenda and having clear follow-up notes to share.
But these four rules Jane taught me are the best thing to ever happen to my meetings.
Thank you, Jane.