Article Contents:
In many small and emerging organizations, it is common to hear executives, managers, and even business heads say, “Meetings are a waste of time.”
Over time, this belief can become ingrained in the organization, leading to typical behaviors during business review meetings that further confirm their belief. This creates a vicious cycle that leads to poor results.
Typical behaviors people display in business review meetings
- Even though calendars and agendas are set in advance for business review meeting, some key people arrive late, and others call them repeatedly.
- Not sticking to the agenda and used to discuss many things. (Sometimes debate on geopolitical issues/macroeconomics!)
- Even after spending time together in meetings, there is a tendency of not concluding the deliverables with a timeline and not fixing anyone for responsibility.
- Spending more time on data /analysis in different formats without much action plan focus
- During the meeting, the chairperson( usually the business head😀) addresses a few people and discusses almost 1-1; others begin losing interest and engaging in private discussions.
- Some people look at their mobile for WhatsApp updates/replies, and some are busy on laptops typing/replying to emails as if they are not part of the meeting.
- Some people sitting passively without doing any actions and wondering why they have been called for the meeting 😢
When meetings are conducted poorly, they reinforce the belief that they are a waste of time. One of the main reasons for this is the chairperson’s ineffectiveness in conducting review meetings.
To avoid this, business heads and functional leaders need to learn the life skills of conducting effective business review meetings. This involves learning specific techniques and practicing them until mastery is achieved.
In some client organizations, there was a belief that meetings drain energy. However, thanks to the business head, they changed their perception of review meetings as a forum for decisions and learned the principles of conducting effective meetings.
As a result, some are now capable of handling reviews and have even improved their personal productivity.
Conducting a purposeful and result-driven review meeting is an art that business heads and other leaders can learn with conscious effort.
With the right insights and solutions, review meetings can become more effective.
Mindsets that related to business review meeting
Many business leaders view meetings as a waste of time and fear they may have negative consequences. Consequently, they avoid holding meetings altogether. When they need to make urgent decisions, they prefer to call individuals over the phone or have one-on-one conversations and then convey the discussion to someone else. Unfortunately, this approach can negatively impact the productivity of the business leader or their team.
It seems that the reason behind this is that the person in charge of the business is either not interested in conducting review meetings or has not yet learned how to do so effectively.
This might be due to a fear of facing people in a group setting or a lack of knowledge about how to hold a review meeting efficiently.
One of the business heads said, “I know the problems in the company, and I know the solutions as well; why do I need meetings?”
The other expressed his fear that he could not ask the right questions beyond some point in a group.
When many people are together, I do not know how to handle differences of opinion as sometimes the conflict becomes a personal attack, and I want to avoid meetings.
All the above concerns are genuine and come from a limited perspective on business management.
Business leaders must enhance their perspectives about managing review meetings to find the truth or reality.
- Better solutions can come from anyone, and not necessarily the leader should always provide an answer or solution for the problem. Let us open up the issues to the people and let them think.
- Leaders can learn the art of asking questions in a holistic approach by practice.
- Conflict management is part of daily activities, and we must learn to manage different groups or opinions.
- A meeting forum is where we can have cross-functional people, and we allow them to know each other’s problems. And eventually, it will improve their empathy and engagement.
- The meeting forum is meant to facilitate the timely elevation of issues and decision-making, thereby avoiding delay.
- A meeting forum is an opportunity to know one’s leadership qualities and group dynamics, and from an individual perspective, that forum is an excellent opportunity for visibility.
- A meeting forum allows for acknowledging and appreciating performance, which signals to all people that performance matters. That will promote performance culture.
- A leader can save much time if he/she utilizes the review forum for setting the expectations right and making relevant teams accountable rather than chasing each one.
- Managing business with 1-1 conversation will not help when the organization grows up with complexity like more products/customers/ employees.
When the business head or leader understands the reality or truth about the power of review forums, they can change their perception of them. When the mindset and belief about the review meetings change, they are in a position to learn the art of conducting business review meetings effectively.
Some of the proven principles and techniques for conducting effective business review meeting based on my experience with small business
Fixed agenda and Fixed time:
To bring consistency and manage time well, a Fixed Agenda and Fixed Time will help.
It is about discussing or reviewing the same agenda/topic at a fixed time.
For example, Monday at 10 am for the weekly sales review, Tuesday at 2 pm for the New product delivery review, and so on.
The key benefit is that everyone knows the agenda and timings, which helps to prepare well. Since the business head shows consistency in maintaining the fixed agenda and fixed time, eventually, the team’s response to the meeting will improve, and overall effectiveness will also improve.
When we do not have any fixed agenda at a specified time, the team cannot prepare, and inconsistency leads to a mediocre way of handling the reviews.
And as a business head and leader, you are aware of your schedule, which will enhance your time management capability.
Action:
- Prepare your daily/weekly schedule of reviews and let your team be aware of it.
- You can stick to it for a few weeks, and you can see the result in your productivity.
- Once you make it a habit, it becomes a culture in your organization.
Clarity on the outcome :
Before you start the review, be clear in your mind what you want to achieve or the desired outcome of the meeting.
It would be best if you had clarity on whether the review is a business performance review, technical discussion, or a related discussion.
Each review calls for different attention from you and the participating team.
In one of my client meetings, the business head calls for a monthly business performance (KPI review)meeting, and all the functional leaders, along with the team, are present. After some time, the business head spent more time on one of the KPI metrics and got into detailed design aspects of the components. Rather than focusing on the business issues, the business head and the engineering head get into the details of rejections, tool design, and engineering dimensions, and the meeting purpose is defeated. The meeting became a 1-1 conversation between the business head and engineering head, extending for more than 30 minutes. Other team members became just spectators, and some lost interest in the topic as it was relevant.
The key improvement required in that situation is that as chairperson of the review, the business head should stick to business performance only and ensure that the team is fully accountable for results and engaged in providing the business results.
The technical discussion could have been done outside the review by scheduling time with the design team later.
The chairperson should keep the objective clear and focus on achieving it rather than allowing for diversion. He/ she must learn when to switch to macro and micro details. It will come through awareness and practice.
Sometimes, team members bring up issues other than the core agenda, and the chairperson should address the problems offline and simultaneously respect individual concerns. That balanced approach will help the team to engage well.
Action:
Be clear about the type of business review you are going to conduct, whether business performance or technical or people-related aspects, as each will have a different drive during reviews.
Encourage Master Action Plan:
Most of the reviews are not effective because the time is spent mainly on data integrity and analysis. Either people will be showing more data and different analyses without concluding with solid action plans to solve the problems.
Sometimes, the business head thinks he/she has to give solutions and does it, and people take it as advice. The business head seems happy with his idea, and no one takes it as seriously for implementation. Any advice needs to be supported with accountability and a timeline target.
Smart Business heads will help the team to make a consolidated or master action plan to solve the problems and review it every time for implementation or help in making decisions. By the way, the effectiveness of the review can be improved as a team is having clarity about what needs to be done
clarity increases the speed of execution, and one of the purposes of a review meeting is to bring clarity to the problem and solutions approach.
One master action plan for each function or category of business issues will help to consolidate all the problems and solutions approach in a single place or worksheet.
For example.
one master action plan for plant utilization and efficiency aspect
one master action plan for quality issues/customer complaints
one master action plan for cost optimization projects
one master action plan for people-related problems.
In a single Excel sheet, you will have data/data analysis/root cause / holistic action plan/review status, etc.
This will help to ensure the continuity of the last review’s actions
Action:
Develop a Master Action Plan for each business aspect and review it every time to ensure continuity
Involve relevant people and let them speak:
In many instances, I have observed that the chairperson speaks a lot, and others are passively listening. One of the reasons could be that a key person might have missed out, as there is no one to respond to the chairperson.
It would be better practice to ensure all the participants are relevant people for the agenda and make them speak up. Ensuring the relevant people’s presence in the review forum will help to avoid communication issues and postpone the decisions.
Generally, meeting/ review forums are an excellent platform for people to speak up and share their perspectives and insights.
Some participants need initial encouragement or push, and you must prompt them to speak. This can be possible by asking each one about their views. That way, you make all people participative and comfortable with your presence. They will change their perception of the meeting as a place for giving suggestions as someone is ready to listen.
It is always a good habit to start the meeting with a context setting and allow the people to speak up, and you can always summarize the agreeable actions at the end.
When you speak last, giving your views/feedback / summarizing the action plan will have a lasting impact on the team’s accountability part.
Summary
Meetings meant for decision-making/appreciation/feedback.
You need to change the purpose of the meeting to make decisions fast by involving all people and appreciating any good work of people in the open forum rather than using the review forums to fix the people and get into a blaming game.
Overall, the chairperson’s facilitation skills are essential in making the meeting more effective. The good news is that facilitation skills can be learned through awareness and practice!
You can make your business review meetings more effective.
