Your Effective Meeting Cheatsheet

Your meeting is running 17 minutes long, with no end in sight.

Even worse, you’re late to your next meeting and text notifications are now flying in asking when you’ll show up.

You glance at your to-do list and feel instant anxiety, knowing you’ll have to work late to make up the time lost in meetings.

This is the lived experience of leaders every single day. How did we get here?

Meetings, like to-do lists and calendars, can be incredibly effective if we know how to use them. And just like to-do lists and calendars, if you haven’t been taught or seen meetings done well, they can kill your results, waste your finite time and add to your anxiety.

Sounds like hell. If only it could be different.

It can.

I’ve experimented over 15 years across 7,500+ meetings, optimizing to find the most effective methods for meetings to help me do more with less stress.

If you follow the framework below, you can lead and attend meetings you actually look forward to, and have all the time you need to accomplish the rest of your priorities this week.

Let's get into it.

Big Idea :: Meetings Are Simply Tasks We Do Together

The completion of a meeting should feel just like the completion of a task: measurable work accomplished that moves your goals forward or expresses your values. 

Meetings are tasks we can't accomplish on our own, so we invite others to do them with us. If we could accomplish the task on our own, we wouldn't need to meet in the first place. 

Meetings also transact in the same currency as any other task: time. 

Given all this, it follows that meetings benefit from the same approach you should be taking to any task:

• It competes with everything else on your Backlog, ensuring it's the highest leverage use of your time.
• Time required is estimated and right-sized to ensure success, but not a second more.
• "Done" is clearly defined to drive your focus.

Now that you have the right mental model for meetings, let's make them as effective as possible. 

Side note: the framework below assumes you're leading the meeting. If that's not the case, the framework can still serve you in judging if the meetings your attending are effective or not. If not, consider sharing this with the meeting leader, using the Common Goals / Compassion / Context framework. 

An 8 Step Framework for Effective Meetings

Step #1 :: Decide if you should meet in the first place

Just like any task on your calendar, it should only show up their if you truly believe it will advance your goals or help you express your values.

If you're not sure, cancel the meeting. Otherwise you're wasting everyone's finite and valuable time. 

If you're sure the meeting is valuable, move on to Step #2.

Step #2 :: Define "Done" supported by a focused agenda

An effective meeting, like a effective task, starts with a clear definition of "Done". What is the measurable outcome at the end of the meeting that will confirm you've advanced your goals or expressed your values? 

Here are some example definitions of "Done" per meeting type:

• A brainstorming meeting: Define 5 to 10 ideas that can be explored by the Creative team following the meeting. 
• A planning meeting: Agree on the milestones, milestone owners and timelines for the project. 
• A team-building meeting: All team members share a personal win and personal challenge they are currently experiencing at work. 

Once "Done" is defined, your agenda then becomes the steps to focus your meeting attendees to drive "Done". Agendas must be visible to be effective, either on screen in the meeting or printed and handed out.

At an early stage company where I was the COO, if the meeting leader didn't have a a clear definition of "Done" and a visible agenda, we'd instantly cancel the meeting because we knew it would waste everyone's time.

Step #3 :: Set clear intent for the meeting in the first 30 seconds

You've done the work to define "Done" and set a focused agenda, now you need to enforce it. By setting clear intent for the meeting in the first 30 seconds, you send a clear message that (a) you have a plan for this meeting, (b) this meeting is valuable, and (c) you have a fixed amount of time so everyone's focus is critical. Attendees will anchor to this intent, and will feel tension if they or anyone else veers away from the intent of the meeting. 

Using the project planning meeting example above, here's what this might sound like: "Thank you all for making time to be here. Over the next hour, the purpose of this meeting is to agree on the milestones, milestone owners and timelines for the project. This will give us clarity as a team, and ensure we crush this project together. Let's quickly review the agenda, then get into it."

Step #4 :: Pre-read in the meeting

A meeting is a unique time and space where you can control the focus of those in the room. On high impact teams, everyone's schedule is full in pursuit of your shared goals, which dramatically decreases the chances that anyone will actually do a meeting pre-read.

If context is critical for the meeting, make it the first agenda item. Provide that context either as a presentation or as a document to read, and confirm understanding before moving on to the next steps. If this feels like a waste of precious meeting time, consider that Jeff Bezos, legendary CEO of Amazon, considers this "the smartest thing we ever did" in leading meetings. 

Step #5 :: Stay on topic and park rabbit trails

Without fail, as you lead the meeting, there will ancillary topics that arise that are important, but not supportive of your definition of "Done" for the meeting. 

In lieu of simply shutting down rabbit trails, honor the importance of the ancillary topic to whoever brings it up, then kindly move it to a parking lot to keep the meeting focused on your definition of "Done". You'll come back to this parking lot in Step #7 below. 

Here's what this might sound like: "Casey, I appreciate the importance of what you're sharing. I'm concerned if we stay on that thread, we're not going to accomplish the purpose of this meeting. I'll park that topic for now, and we'll come back to it at the end and decide a good next step for it."

Step #6 :: Give a 15 minute warning

Like a well defined task, a meeting has a time estimate that should drive your focus. Meetings most often go sideways when the meeting leader does not keep track of time, leading to meetings that run long, disrupting the schedules of everyone involved. 

An easy way to overcome this is a 15 minute warning, that alerts everyone that it's time to double down on focus and land the plane. Here's what this sounds like "Quick time check: we've got 15 minutes left in the meeting. Let's see what we can do to accomplish our purpose for this meeting."

If you're in range of completing the definition of "Done", stay focused and drive it to the finish line. 

If you're not in range, use Step #7 below to schedule a follow-up meeting to get to "Done". 

By the way, at the 15 minute mark if it's clear that you're not going to get to "Done" but you are focused and making good progress, you can go over time if all players have the margin and agree to do so. If they are a Time Boss, they have Whirlwind to absorb these unexpected interruptions to their schedule, so the impact should be minimal. 

Step #7 :: Confirm next steps with due dates

You likely collected a number of next steps during the meeting, including any ancillary topics that you put in the parking lot. Use the last 5 minutes of the meeting to clearly articulate next steps, including assigning an owner of each next step, and a due date. If you're a Time Boss and something is assigned to you specifically, these go perfectly on your Daily List, Backlog or Calendar (see the Time Boss Weekly Operating System Masterclass if curious about this). 

Pro tip: if a follow-up meeting is needed, schedule it right then and there with everyone in the room. It will save everyone time in scheduling, and ensure the follow-up meeting happens. 

Step #8 :: Honor all attendees with gratitude

Every person in that meeting has a finite and valuable amount of time, and they choose to spend it with you in the meeting. Take a moment to show gratitude to the attendees as you close, and reinforce the value of the meeting. 

Here's what this might sound like: "I recognize you all have so much on your plates, and I'm grateful you made time to meet today. We accomplished our goal and have clear next steps. Great job everyone!"

Meetings are a Key Part of your Weekly Operating System

Meetings are simply tasks we do together, so it's critical that you have a cohesive Weekly Operating System to contend with the sheer amount tasks coming at you. If you don't have a Weekly Operating System you trust, the Time Boss Weekly Operating System Masterclass offers a comprehensive guide to get more done with less stress. It's perfect for the self-starter who is ready to implement strategies today.

If you think you might be best served with coaching and accountability, the Time Boss 6 Week Coaching Cohort provides personalized support to transform your relationship with time. Cohort members are solving their relationship with time in just 6 weeks. If curious, please schedule a 15 minute call with Andrew to see if it's a good fit for you.