Planning meetings can be frustrating and unproductive but they need not be that way. Helen Chapman explains how to avoid death by Powerpoint.

Planning meetings suffer from the common problems faced in all meetings, such as; not having a focused outcome; not having the relevant people in the room; dominant characters taking up all the air time; and not sticking to the agenda. But they also have their own special challenges; they often involve multifunctional groups coming into the meeting with different perspectives about what's needed. This can add to the challenge of group decision making.

How much involvement do you want?

This is the first question you need to ask yourself before a meeting. Nowadays, with the focus on collaborative working, there is just as much time wasted in meetings discussing decisions that have been made as there is listening to death by powerpoint! Be honest with yourself about whether you want to inform a group of a decision or actually involve them in making the decision. Be clear yourself about any givens, things that are not up for negotiation. Don't fall into the trap of involving for the sake of involving: instead, do it with reason and purpose.

"Nowadays... there is just as much time wasted in meetings discussing decisions that have been made as there is listening to death by Powerpoint!"

How much involvement do they want?

By speaking with the meeting participants before a meeting you can assess what level of involvement they want. Each conversation need not take hours, just a few minutes to ask what their expectations are and if they have any concerns. These conversations often help the understanding of where people want information and how they want to be involved in decisions. Interestingly, this process may also help you to decide whether a person really needs to attend this meeting (some people can be meeting dwellers!) or whether an important person is missing. Be careful not to force the involvement of others. If action plans are produced in the planning meeting they must be realistic, agreed to and 'owned' by the people whose names are in the 'to be actioned by' box.

Be clear about purpose, outcomes and outputs

Purpose: It is all too easy to use the term 'planning meeting' without really stopping to consider it's full purpose. Why are you planning? What do you want to happen that wouldn't happen without this meeting? How does this planning meeting connect with others happening in the business? What will this plan be part of? What will it inform? As you ask these questions you will begin to see the meeting in light of the bigger picture. This will even help you decide the best date for the meeting as well as who should be there.

Outcomes: What do you want to achieve by the end of the planning meeting? Consider the outcomes for both the whole planning meeting and for each separate agenda item. Often, meetings have agendas with no defined outcomes. For example an agenda item might say, 'Agree budget plan for 2008/9', without real clarity about what needs to come out of that session, or the level of detail required, let alone how decisions will get made.

Outputs: What documentation will be produced? Who will it go to? How will it be used? Time is often wasted writing lengthy minutes from meetings, which never get read by anyone except the poor unfortunate who got landed with the task of writing them!

Can you communicate in advance of the meeting?

Once you have decided how you want to involve the group it can be really valuable to make sure the participants understand the decisions that are going to be made in the meeting and how they are going to be involved. This can be done with an email communicating the following:

• Purpose: Explain the context and scope for the planning meeting


• Pre-work: what should people think about or prepare for the meeting?


• Outcomes: The specific things you aim to achieve


• Agenda: At least an overview, showing the timing of breaks


• Roles: Clarify why individuals have been invited and their specific role

Just a word about pre-work:
It can be useful to give participants a couple of questions to think about as pre-work for the planning meeting. This helps with two things.

1)Participants prioritising the meeting in their diaries. If they understand the decisions that will be made and understand that their time will not be wasted then they will be much more likely to commit to attending.

2)Participants come ready to get involved. Most people spend a lot of time in un-engaging meetings, by explaining that their participation is required and giving them something to think about you are likely to get people there in the right state to do the work you need to do.

Decide on how decisions will be made in advance of the meeting

Many a good planning meeting has failed to produce results because of poor decision making. It is a mistake to rely solely upon spontaneous decision-making during the meeting (although this is sometimes inevitable). So, when putting the agenda together make sure that:

• Every agenda item is in service of the overall outcome for the whole meeting
• Each agenda item has it's own clear outcome
• Enough time is provided to discuss and explore the agenda item to give participants enough information to be able to make informed decisions
• You know who is best placed to make the decision. Should the most senior person decide? Should the group decide - if so will the decision be made by consensus or majority? Should an 'expert' decision? eg marketing, IT finance, HR, or somebody with good experience in the item being discussed
  
  
• You know how voting, if any, will happen, eg raised hands, dot-voting, etc

Make sure that participants know how decisions will be made and that you accurately document decisions real time in the meeting.

Helen Chapman is a meeting facilitator at Meeting Magic. The company specialises in graphic facilitation. Clients include Mars, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Microsoft, Kerry Foods, various government departments, The NHS and Mencap. Based in the UK, it offers a global service working with affiliate companies in Australia and the USA.