A Timely Meeting Tip
Meetings can often be frustrating experiences. Here is a timely tip for improving your meetings.
by Jak Carroll, Strategic Sport Solutions
Meetings have been described as “time sucks”, gatherings where people spend hours taking minutes, and events where we allow others to steal our valuable time.
They are also essential activities of all Boards and committees.
As Paul Axtell states: “… each meeting is an opportunity to clarify issues, set new directions, sharpen focus, create alignment, and move objectives forward.”
However, one of the major criticisms of meetings is about time: they waste time, they don’t keep to time, or they take too much too time.
So what is the right length of time for time for a Board or committee meeting?
I suspect most people have never been to one that ran for less than an hour. Conversely, I have heard many stories of meetings that have lasted for 3 hours or more.
I recently attended a webinar hosted by Terry Dillon where he revealed that former Victorian Premier and current President of the Hawthorn Football Club, Jeff Kennett, believes that no committee meeting should ever go longer than 90 minutes.
I’m a great believer in shorter and more regular meetings to move things forward, but many Boards or committees seem to prefer longer meetings every month or two.
Regardless of how long your meetings run, do you ever evaluate the conduct and effectiveness of your Board or committee meetings?
According to a 2019 Harvard Business Review article (“Why Your Meetings Stink - and What to Do About It”) one of the keys to effective meetings is regular assessment, through things like checking in periodically with the people who attend the meetings.
Do you allocate some time near the end of each meeting to discuss how to make your meetings better? Do you ever discuss things like meeting time limits, rules of discussion or how the agenda is compiled?
If not, maybe it’s time for you to put “meetings” on the agenda.
Does your organisation need some help with planning or governance? Jak Carroll has extensive experience in the sport and nonprofit sectors, including consulting to organisations and conducting training sessions. If you are interested in some quick advice or having Jak work with you on your next project, please click here.