A designer’s tips on how to have effective meetings

Two women at work. Photo by Windows on Unsplash

What would an effect meeting look like? In her well-acclaimed book The Making of a Manager, Julie Zhuo shared a few characteristics of a successful meeting. A successful meeting can give people such feelings:

• This meeting respects my time
• I have gained new information that is helpful to my productivity
• After the meeting, I have a better idea of what to do next
• Everyone is dedicated
• I feel welcome/fit in

Any professional, especially when progress to a senior level of their career, may run into the traps of having ineffective meetings. Here is a list of tips that excerpt from Julie’s book and observed from great people I worked with, and I would like to share it with you who are ready to spend your time with others at work with more mindfulness and clearer outcome.

As a host

Invite the right persons (only)

• Invite only relevant persons to the meeting
• If you would like to extend the meeting to more audience, mark clearly mandatory and optional members so they can arrange their time accordingly
• If you are hosting a decision-making meeting, make sure the stakeholders that are directly affected by the decision are invited

Allow others to prepare for it

• State the agenda of the meeting in the description
• Attach contextual or supporting documents (research reports/requirement documents/design links) in advance when possible
• Update the agenda in a timely manner whenever there are changes

Respect others’ time

• Get your device (speaker, permissions, external display, remote control, etc.) and documents to be shared ready before the meeting
• At the start of the meeting, a host should clearly state the purpose and expected outcome
• Speak in a succinct manner so your audience is always engaged
• Pay attention to the time elapsed to avoid meeting being overrun

Cultivate a safe space for people to speak

• When you are facilitating a discussion, try to allow everyone have a chance to speak
• Pay extra attention the introverts, or who may have objections
• Collect the feedback from your participants after the meeting, if needed
• Try to summarize the actionable items and have it aligned before the meeting is over

After the meeting

• If follow-up is needed, send out a summary of the meeting with actionable items or follow-ups in a group chat of relevant participants
• Invite participants to correct mistakes if any

As a participant

• Try to RSVP the meetings (no matter it’s Yes/No/Maybe) as soon as possible to give the host a clear expectation
• Try your best to engage actively (while respect the agenda of the meeting) because you are not joining this meeting for no reason
• Avoid attending non-essential meetings to you

In a research conducted by Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, meetings that are thoughtfully planned and well scheduled have direct impact on the performance of team and employees. We shall take each meeting a chance to make things happen and deepen your relationship with others, even if you won’t agree with the decisions all the time.

References

• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, Julie Zhuo, published March 2019 by Portfolio