On of my favorite hobbies is coaching little league baseball. During a game last year it hit me that many meetings are run in a similar manner. Pardon me for the comparision, but the similarities can provide a little humor at a process that all too often needs improvement.
As I watched, I noticed I had three outfielders playing in the dirt, my third baseman had one foot in foul territory, and my second baseman was standing on second base. I also had a few players that were ready, on their toes, and prepared.
- How often at your meetings do you have the back of their room paying sporadic attention while most of their focus is either on their laptop or blackberry?
- How many people do you have playing by their own rules?
- What percent of the room is prepared and actively participating in the meeting?
As a coach, we know we need a game plan. Yet often we “wing it” because of experience and love for the game. Sometimes this works, and sometimes not-so-much.
During practice, we can move people into groups of like needs and work at different speeds to excel learning (or at least repetition). We can redo things as many times as necessary. We can freely move people into different positions.
We have the luxury of a practice schedule – organizations and managers do not. They have to learn while doing. They do not get trophies for participation. We need our people to be prepared and active in a meeting or else we are not maximizing our use of time.
If the meeting is to understand a performance issue, then we need to have someone write up the issue and send a brief summary to the team. We need the rest of the team to have read the brief, done their relevant research, and prepared a list of potential recommendations to discuss. The meeting should not be about discussing what research needs to be done – it should be about looking at the research and agreeing upon a course of action.
PureStone Partners LLC 