Are Your Meetings a Terrible Snoozefest?

Does the idea of another meeting fill you with dread? Use GAP to make the next one productive and interesting. [Coach.me] [View this email in your browser]( Are Your Meetings a Terrible Snoozefest? Does the idea of another meeting fill you with dread? Use GAP to make the next one productive and interesting. People call meetings without appropriate preparation. And when everyone arrives unprepared, the meeting inevitably becomes a huge waste of time. Don't get me wrong: I'm a huge fan of brainstorming and having deep discussions in meetings. But I've learned to insist on using facilitation techniques to keep meetings productive. That also makes them a lot more interesting! See below for an excerpt from my book, [Meeting Mastery: The Coach.me Leader's Guide to Meetings with Impact](. It's about one technique that can really help you rock out your next meeting. We call it "GAP"—that stands for Goal, Agenda, and Preparation. Read on to learn all about it! In Service, Coach Tony CEO/Founder, Coach.me How to set a GAP for Your Next Meeting An excerpt from the book [Meeting Mastery: The Coach.me Leader's Guide to Meetings with Impact]( If your meeting has no impact, it’s a useless meeting. Know the impact you intend to have and you’ll know how much preparation to do. A handy acronym for meeting planning is GAP which stands for goal, agenda, and preparation. We first heard this phrase from Tim Roberts, a VP who helped Fitbit IPO. He enforced this rule by letting anyone skip meetings that didn’t have a GAP. Everyone was desperate to get out of meetings, and employees who sent a meeting invitation without a GAP might arrive to an empty meeting room. Here’s what you need to do to set a GAP. - Goal: make a clear statement about the purpose of the meeting. - Agenda: meetings should have an agenda: a list of topics for discussion (or other activities) in the order in which they’ll occur. - Preparation: a statement of what attendees need to do or bring to be prepared for the meeting. Think about the worst meetings you’ve attended. Chances are, they were the ones that either had no impact or had an unintended impact, and the root cause was probably poor preparation. GAP helps prevent that. Let’s look at it in more detail. G is for Goal Why are you having the meeting? If you can’t answer that question, or if the answer is something like “because we’ve always had this meeting,” you’re in trouble. But you can fix it. What outcomes do you want for the meeting? Jot down some quick notes about what you’d like to do, decide, or say during the meeting can help you get clarity and focus. This needn’t be a lengthy exercise. Get in this habit. And ask for the purpose of meetings you’re called to. Having a purpose for a meeting doesn’t imply rigidity. A purpose can be “explore options.” But what impact do you want to have by “exploring options”? Do you want to make a decision about what to do next? Get ideas for improving a product? Learn who on your team is thinking strategically? The answers to those questions will help you make decisions about the meeting itself: who needs to be there, the format, and whether there should be a meeting at all. Many group meetings can be replaced effectively with a 1-on-1 conversation. A is for Agenda An agenda need not be lengthy or detailed, but there are two things it should accomplish: - It should define the scope of the meeting. - Participants should have some idea of “where” in the meeting they are; this helps the group self-regulate their use of time. Recurring meetings can have a standing agenda with some facilitation method for bringing new items to light. There’s no need to write an agenda for a regular meeting every time…but there should be an agenda that’s understood by the participants. Can you structure the meeting in such a way that participants can be excused from parts of the meeting that aren’t relevant to them? For most meetings, send the agenda to attendees in advance. For an ad-hoc meeting, take a few moments to to note a list of topics to discuss on a whiteboard or flip chart before launching into a detailed discussion. A good agenda, even an exceedingly simple one, helps clarify the goals of the meeting. P is for Preparation What should your attendees do to arrive at the meeting prepared? Do you want them to review or bring data? Read something? Think of solutions to a problem? Whatever it is, make sure you include those specifics in your meeting invitation. Keep it concise, but let your attendees know what they should do to arrive at the meeting and be prepared to work. Setting the GAP You should set a GAP in the meeting invitation. Here's a GAP we actually used: There are situations where meetings have a standing GAP; these are often weekly meetings that repeat frequently. If you don't have a GAP already explicitly stated, try setting one. Did you enjoy reading about this topic? [Heavy Mental]( is Tony's personal group coaching experience, where he explores these topics with you as you learn to apply them in your own life. Every Sunday, you get a newsletter in your email that introduces the focus for the week, links to research and resources, and a kick-off exercise. Then, every weekday you get an exercise right in the Coach.me app. You Get All of This! - A new module every four weeks. 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