"It's just an information dump"
Don't hire the illiterate
If you bring people together strictly to update them on sales numbers, software upgrades, vacation-day policies, and/or baby-pool standings, you get what you stray for. "The only rational defense to interrupt talented people with an information dump is if your employees can't read," says Kenneth Sole. "These are the meetings that induce hypnosis." Meetings are never the place to heap employees with material that they could read via the electronic mailing system. Meetings should be about attacking problems, or else they're going to be about boring employees.
Kevin Grauman, CEO of the Outsource Group, a Walnut Creek, Calif., company that administers outsourced HR functions (and was formerly the top company in the Inc. 500), adheres to the "no information dump" policy. Every gathering is a strategic session to share ideas, get feedback, and distill the overall perspectives of the company. "Employees should be empowered to solve problems and take the risk inherent in participation and not be spoon-fed answers," Grauman says emphatically.
"I've got a room full of yes men and yes women"
Make your bobbleheads engage
If all you want to see is a smiling face in complete agreement with your mandates, hang a mirror in the office. John G. Miller, author of the QBQ! The Question Behind the Question, has monitored some 10,000 hours of meetings, workshops, and training sessions, and he's concluded that a room full of nodding yes men and yes women wastes everyone's time. Miller has a few basic exercises to combat bobblehead tendencies: (1) Plant seeds by sending out a question of the week prior to the meeting so that people will come in with thoughts that they can be expected to share; (2) Throw out a problem and break up employees into groups of two or three for 10 minutes, and then have them report their ideas. A short shift into teams changes the dynamic of the room, both because employees are usually more comfortable talking to peers and because it cuts down on lecturing; and (3) Praise those who speak up and participate. If managers reward only the completion of projects, there is no acknowledgment of the work that's done within meetings.
Stuart Levine, a strategic consultant, author of The Six Fundamentals of Success, and a CEO with 25 employees of his own, is known to hand out Tootsie Roll Pops on the spot for intriguing thoughts. It's a modest but effective little gimmick. "Recognizing contributions gets the intellectual capital flowing and brings the more introverted off the bench," says Levine.
"We always peter out"
Leave the room like George Costanza
In a classic Seinfeld, George Costanza offers an astute insight into giving meetings a needed shot of flair and excitement. George took the old comic saw of "Always leave them wanting more" and began exiting meetings the moment after he threw out a well-received witticism. Costanza wouldn't seem to be the gold standard for productivity, but in this case he's in step with the eggheads. John Clemens and Scott Dalrymple, professors of management at Hartwick College and co-authors of Time Mastery (due out this summer), spent two years researching effective leadership for their book about using time as a strategic tool. They strongly encourage leaders to seize the big moment of a meeting. The Wednesday 3 p.m. meeting might have its climax at 3:17, so cut it off on a high. There's no need for a denouement--this is a meeting, not a novel, and besides, there'll be another one next week. Clemens says that to truly own the room, managers have to develop a sixth sense as to when a major moment is at hand so that employees walk out jazzed up--and never discount the natural high of exiting a meeting early.
"This conference room puts me to sleep"
Get out more
Who made up the rule that all meetings have to be held inside the same four drab walls? Greg James, CEO of consumer software company Topics Entertainment, considers his off-site meetings a secret weapon, which is why two or three times a month he takes his employees on reconnaissance missions at the mall. They grab some nosh at the food court and then undertake a thorough examination of the software departments of stores all in and around the mall. They analyze packaging, pricing, endcap placement, and markdowns, and check out new products from the competition. They've also been able to identify nontraditional selling arenas where they might make headway, such as when they realized Topics could place needlepoint software at the arts and crafts chain Michaels. "Our meetings are a form of reverse engineering," says James. "We make products retailers want, instead of we made it, you buy it." James is such a fan of lunch-hour mall trolling that he recently moved the company closer to a major Seattle-area shopping center.
