You're Invited to a Meeting...

Twenty-five years ago here in Kuala Lumpur, the public sector and private sector employees would take off from work an hour apart.  Public sector employees took off at 4:30 and private sector employees took off at 5:30.  The ostensible reason for this was to minimize rush-hour traffic.
 
Today this seems like a fantasy.  For one thing, with the number of cars on the road, rush-hour traffic is here to stay.  Furthermore, with the amount of work that today’s employees say they need to do, taking off at 6:30, 7:30 and even 9:00pm has become the norm.  Look around your office.  Your staff have obvious demands on their time.

This being true, the last thing your staff wants is to attend another meeting where their presence isn’t required.  Meetings take time, and that time must be spent productively for your staff to feel a sense of purpose and achievement.
 
That’s why choosing the list of attendees thoughtfully and carefully is important to the success of your business meetings.  Having the right people there ensures that everyone’s time is invested into a common purpose and that all affected stakeholders can share in the decision-making process.
 

People who should be invited to attend your meetings primarily include the subject matter experts and the key decision makers.  These are the people who have the knowledge and the data relative to the purpose of the meeting and key senior management who will authorize decisions made in the outcome.  Additionally, representatives of the staff whose jobs are directly affected by the objectives of the meeting should attend.  These are the people who can provide input necessary to influence the decision-making process.

Some of your staff should not be invited to attend.  These include the people who are not affected by the meeting’s objectives as these staff will find it difficult to contribute to the process.  Very often you may have people attending your meetings who remain silent throughout, and although you may wish that they’d contribute, is it possible that they have no ownership in the meeting and, as a result, have nothing to invest?  Think about it.  Why have people at your meeting who neither need nor want to be there?

Having clear, goal-oriented objectives is the first step towards successful business meetings.  Having the right attendees who can invest in the process helps you ensure that these objectives are met.

Action Objectives for Successful Meetings

Despite their importance to your organizational communications, business meetings have a bad reputation.  Common complaints people have are that they run too long, they’re dull and boring, and they go off track.  They’re frequently dominated by just a few speakers and many people who could contribute never speak up.  Although the purpose is often to come to agreement, arguments often result and decisions don’t get made.  For the time, costs and human resources invested, meetings are just wasteful.

The saddest thing about this list of complaints is that they’re often true.  In fact, many studies have shown that more time is wasted in meetings than in any other business activity.  Business people spend up to 40% of their time in meetings that are only 50% efficient. 

One of the best ways to improve efficiency at your business meetings is to ensure that every meeting has a clear action objective.  In other words, if any one of the attendees were to ask, “Why are we having this meeting?”, your action objective would provide the answer.

Your action objective is the outcome your meeting should achieve in the amount of time allotted.  If you state your objective clearly in the e-mail announcements and in the agenda, all of the participants invited will know the purpose of the meeting before they arrive. 

Vague objectives lead to unproductive meetings, so avoid phrases such as, ‘…discuss the effectiveness of the new mobile tracking system” and “…talk about the need for training programs.” 

Instead, use specific action words so that your objective sounds more like a goal that you must achieve.  For example, “…to assign responsibilities for Phase 2 of the Alpha project”, or “…to brainstorm a list of questions for the new customer survey form”, or “…to choose among three proposal options for teambuilding activities.”  Each of these objectives has a clear outcome that measures the success of
your business meeting.

Business guru Peter Drucker said, “If managers spend more than 25% of their time in meetings, it is a sign of poor organization.”  One of the easiest ways that you can get your meetings organized is around a common purpose, and clear, action objectives provide the purpose that you’re looking for.

Four Roles to Assign for Better Meetings

Think about this, and tell me whether you agree or disagree:  Meetings with your staff and colleagues can be the most productive time spent during your business day. 

You’d almost have to agree with that.  Face-to-face business meetings are your best opportunity at work to come to agreement, to solve problems, to choose among options and to circulate information.  Without the open forum of business meetings, your company’s communications would be more dependent on less immediate channels and your business decisions would be more unilateral.

At the same time, however, you’re probably also thinking that spending time in meetings is the most unproductive time of your business day.  Some participants can be long-winded, disruptive or argumentative, causing meetings to run longer than they have to.  You know what it’s like.  Spending time in an unproductive meeting when you could be doing something else can be the most frustrating time spent during your business day.

But meetings don’t have to be like this.  With just a little planning and conformity to guidelines, your meetings at work can be run more efficiently and effectively.  Let’s begin discussing how this can be done by looking at roles.

Attendees at your business meetings will play one of four roles.  First, you have the leader.  The leader is usually responsible for calling the meeting in the first place and for setting the objectives.  Logistics, such as booking a room, writing up an agenda and inviting participants over e-mail, are usually delegated by the leader as well.

While the leader sets the meeting objectives, however, the facilitator ensures that they are met.  The facilitator manages how people work together during the meeting.  He or she quickly irons out problems and conflicts that may arise and also ensures that just one participant at a time is recognized to speak.  Mainly, it’s up to the facilitator to move the meeting along and end it on time.

The recorder is responsible for keeping track of the information from the meeting and making it visual.  This is often done on a flip chart or a white board so participants can follow the meeting’s progress.  More often than not, the recorder will also be responsible for sending out minutes after the meeting is through.

Finally, the last role is that of a participant.  Although untitled, participants play an important role.  They generate ideas, analyze information and make decisions.  Participants bring a wide variety of talents, skills and personalities to your meetings, and as a result, can work towards making them more productive.

Business meetings don’t have to be a drag on your day.  As long as everyone knows the role they’re playing and plays it appropriately, your business meetings can be your day’s greatest achievements.

Seven Steps to Ward Off Customer Anger

Back when I was selling electronic equipment, a customer walked into the store carrying a phone answering system that he had purchased at our sidewalk sale.  He placed the box on the counter and told me, “This doesn’t work.” 

He asked for his money back, and following store policy I told him, “Sorry.  That was a final sale.  Purchased as is.”  Without changing his already dour expression, he lifted the box from the counter, slammed it down again and repeated loud enough for everyone to hear, “I want my money back.” 

Bingo.  My fault.  I turned an unsatisfied customer into an angry customer.  Not wanting to provoke him further, I turned him over to my manager.

Since then, I’ve learned a simple seven-step process that can prevent this from happening.  Let me share it with you so you can handle similar situations, either on the phone or face to face, with more success.

Step 1: Focus.  Remember, your job is to keep this customer happy.  Emotional responses that the customer triggers need to be suppressed and any assumptions you might make about the customer’s situation must be temporarily ignored.

Step 2: Listen.  Allow your customer to vent if necessary.  An unsatisfied customer has a problem that he or she wants to unload and you are the person most readily available.  Let the customer know you’re listening by providing quite feedback and by making eye contact.

Step 3: Empathize.  Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and let him know that you understand how frustrated, annoyed or displeased he must feel.  Apologize if necessary, but keep it in mind that the problem is not your fault.  State your apology to acknowledge the problem and how it is affecting him.

Step 4: Help.  Immediately after expressing empathy, tell your customer what you can do.  Use these two words, help you.  Had I known this, I could have said to my customer, “I’m sorry that this machine is causing you some trouble.  Let’s see what I can do to help you.”  That would have made him feel much better.

Step 5: Understand.  Ask questions to find out what you need to know.  Open-ended questions will keep your customer talking.  Closed-ended questions will get you the details you need.

Step 6: Solve.  This is your bridge to customer satisfaction.  Make a positive offer of help expressing what you can do to make the customer happy.  Remember, at this point your customer wants to know what you can do, not what you cannot do.

Step 7: Agree. Restate the problem your customer has, restate the solution you’re offering, and then ask, “Would you like me to proceed with this right away?”  When your customer says ‘yes’, you have agreement.

Focus, listen, empathize, help, understand, solve, agree.  Seven steps are all you need to keep your customers happy.