Voila, I said, as I finished making the presentation. It looked perfect. Not just “looked”. It felt perfect.
The in-depth research, the detailed findings, the rationale for the recommended way forward. Giving myself a proverbial pat on the unreachable back, I geared up for the meeting.
No pre-read had been sent out. Why spoil the surprise by giving pre-reads, I told myself as I entered the meeting room, like Santa Claus sauntering around with a bag of gifts on Christmas Eve.
The clients were there, senior, junior, mid-level. There were a number of unrelated parties who had joined the meeting too, because, why not. After page 1, the senior client asked a series of questions that had nothing to do with the presentation on the screen. The others joined in. It was all downhill from there.
To this day, it remains my most memorable meeting ever, and in the worst way possible. It stank and sank so phenomenally, that I took a week to course correct and get the client back at the table with the same presentation, but after aligning them to the expectation.
What am I going on about, you wonder. Presentations? Alignment? Clients?
None of these. It’s really about meetings.
How many times have you walked into a meeting wondering why you were there, what was being talked about, what was the point of it all, and then walked out wondering what you achieved by attending that one?
How many times have you walked in thinking about how you were going to run the meeting perfectly well and get all those buy-ins in a jiffy, only to be met by a volley of questions (better than blank faces with eyes trained on WhatsApp) that took the discussion off course for ever?
Not to sound like a show-off but after years of taking royal beatings at meetings, I think I have cracked the code to the holy grail - A successful meeting.
If you are the convenor
Identify the people required in the meeting. Sounds simple huh? Are you telling me you have never invited a bus load of people to a meeting, ‘just in case’? Inviting the relevant people helps in more ways than one, but primarily in reducing the number of irrelevant questions.
Send an email with background and details on the problem to solve for, the process undertaken, and the reason to have the meeting. Something like a pre-read but it need not necessarily always be a 100-page presentation or a 3000-word document.
Find allies. Yeah, you read that right. This is the crucial part. Bounce off the issue and the proposed solution with a couple of folks who are slated to attend the meeting. Incorporate inputs they have, if they seem sane and rational. Sounds like one boring process, no. It helps. To have friends at the table, who, even if they don’t bat for you, don’t run you out at every turn.
Steer the meeting to track. People like talking. They get carried away, in the lilt of their own voices. Remind them of the objective, the time you have left, and the need of the hour. If you hear, “But this is critical, let’s talk about it anyway”, you know you have lost the slot and the plot to an unscheduled discussion which has suddenly risen in hitherto unknown importance.
After the meeting, follow up with an email to close the loop - record the decision, reiterate the questions raised, thank the group. Whatever you fancy. Just close the loop.
If you are the attendee
Ask for the agenda before the meeting. If that still leaves you groping in the dark, ask “Am I needed in the meeting?” If the answer is, “oh just in case”, you know you are part of the truckload.
Read the pre-read. Email, presentation whatever. Have some questions ready. Don’t pounce on the convenor as soon as you enter the meeting to establish your smartness. Wait for the context to come up.
Try to keep to the meeting agenda. If the discussion inspires you to to go on a tangent or a parallel, worse still, an oblique, remember that Karma exists. What happens today to that convenor will happen tomorrow to you. If not, day after.
Lastly, ask yourself when you set up a meeting. Could this have just been an email? Ask yourself when you accept a meeting invite. Is this worth one hour of your salary?
Clarity of thought is underrated; calendar blocks, overrated.
P. S. Views strictly personal. Post doesn’t refer to any organisation that I am currently associated with.