Great meetings start with great invitations

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi.

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  Do you like long and pointless meetings that seem

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  to go on forever and not really achieve anything?

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  I know that I don't. So if you're anything like me, this is not a good meeting.

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  Hi, I am Chris Fanning. I'm an author and a communications instructor,

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  and I wrote a multi award winning book called The First Minute.

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  How to Start Conversations That Get Results.

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  And in this video today,

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  you're going to learn a simple method that will help you have shorter

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  and more productive meetings.

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  Let's get into it.

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  I believe that if you add just three things

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  to your meeting invitations, your meetings are going to be much better.

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  They're going to be faster, and they're going to be clearer.

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  These three things our topic,

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  purpose

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  and output.

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  If you can add these three things to the meeting invite

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  with actually just one sentence for each of them,

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  your meetings are going to be better.

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  We see our goal is to have short and productive meetings.

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  That's what we want.

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  None of us want to be long winded. None of us want to be boring.

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  None of us want to waste other people's time

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  and Yet

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  even though this is our goal,

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  we tend to find a lot of meetings

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  take too long

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  to get to the point.

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  They might just ramble on the introduction. They're not set very well.

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  It takes a long time to get to the key topic that wants to be covered,

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  and by the time you've discovered what it is, it's meant to be done.

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  Some people will have checked out, and maybe even half the meeting

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  has gone by.

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  A second common problem is

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  you might get to a meeting and wonder

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  Why am I here

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  now?

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  If the invite doesn't make it clear why you're meant to be at the meeting,

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  perhaps you won't go.

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  But many of us will attend the meeting in the hope that

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  we find out what it's about and why we've been included.

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  But if you still find yourself saying, why am I here?

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  That is not an effective meeting, and it's really not a good use of your time.

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  And the third problem

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  is

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  meetings that end with this statement.

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  Okay, folks, we've run out of time.

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  I think Let's set up another meeting so we can come back and continue this topic.

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  Ah, that is just a terrible way to end the meeting.

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  Sometimes meetings do run long, and that's all right.

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  But so many of our meetings run long because

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  they don't have a clear purpose or outcome.

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  And there's no way to measure how we're using the time in a meeting

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  and whether or not we are actually getting close to what we need.

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  So meetings that always end with let's set up another meeting are

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  just

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  It's really tough to deal with those,

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  and you know you're going to have to

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  sit through and endure another long session to hopefully

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  eventually get to the point.

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  So with these three problems,

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  what can we do about it?

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  Well, we can't change other people's meetings, not easily, anyway.

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  Other people will continue to send their invites

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  in the way that they do already.

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  What we can change is we can change our meetings. We can change the things that we do

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  to set up much better meetings

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  that people will

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  enjoy,

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  perhaps even enjoy. But people will certainly appreciate and get value from,

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  and the way to do this

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  is to add those three pieces.

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  Add topic

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  purpose and output to your meeting invite.

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  So what are these three things?

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  Well,

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  the topic has got to be the first thing you include in the invite.

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  It's the general theme or topic of the meeting

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  of all the possible things you could be getting people together for.

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  There's one topic that you want them to care about and focus on.

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  Maybe it's a particular project, or you want to talk about a customer

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  or the topic could be

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  next month's sales projections or last month's

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  report or welcoming a new team member.

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  Organisational changes.

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  All of these are examples of a topic.

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  It only takes a few words to say,

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  but if you don't include the topic in your invite,

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  people could attend the meeting and expect very

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  different things from what you are expecting them

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  to talk about and cover.

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  So the first thing that has to be in your invite

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  is the topic.

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  The second thing that is in the invite? Oh, it's less than five words.

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  This is a great thing about crazy is you. Get your on screen all your prompts.

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  Turn up So less than five words in the topic.

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  We're not looking for a complete description of what it is.

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  We're not looking for an explanation of the problem. Just a short, brief name.

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  The topic. Less than five words.

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  Once you've done that,

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  you can move on to the purpose.

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  Every meeting has a purpose.

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  There is a reason that you are bringing people together

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  to talk about the topic,

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  and that purpose must be

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  in the meeting invitation.

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  You want people to know

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  why they are being included,

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  what it is that you're hoping to do or achieve in the session.

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  The purpose of the meeting might be to

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  share information about upcoming organisation changes.

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  The purpose of the meeting might be to kick off

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  a new project and identify resources to work on it.

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  Other purposes include getting approval. We want

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  approval from the boss so that we can start work next week.

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  We want to get ideas from the group.

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  So the purpose of the meeting is to review an existing idea and get extra

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  ideas from everyone in the room so that we can make this first idea better.

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  We want all of your input.

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  That's the purpose of the meeting

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  you're meeting. Invitation should make that clear, so that everyone can assess

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  what they can contribute to that purpose.

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  And the third thing

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  that should be in a meeting invitation

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  is the output.

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  Why are we here? What are we actually going to produce in this meeting?

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  Every meeting has an output. Or at least it should have a meeting.

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  A lot of meetings don't have outputs, but they really should.

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  Now an output isn't a physical object.

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  Outputs of meetings could be

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  a list of actions for people to follow up on.

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  The output could be

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  an approval from a manager,

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  the approval to start a piece of work or agreement that funding will be available.

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  That's a specific output. You want to leave the meeting with it.

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  Other outputs include checklists or gathering of ideas so that a list

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  of new ideas to solve a particular problem that's a clear output.

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  It's almost like something you could write down or print out and hold in your hand.

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  This is the thing that we achieved, and this is the thing that we produced

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  in this meeting

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  that is your output,

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  and when you have a clear output

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  when you're running your meeting, you can measure the progress towards getting it

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  if you are half an hour through

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  your session,

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  and

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  the idea is to gather 10 new ideas and

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  you're half an hour through and you've only got one

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  you know, you've got to change something in the meeting.

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  So having a clear output helps you measure your time.

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  Stay focused on what it is that you're trying to achieve and

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  help everyone in the room be productive at the same time.

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  These are the three things

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  that you should include in your meeting invitation

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  even before the meeting has begun.

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  So now that you know

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  topic purpose and output should be included, where do they go in the invite,

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  they go here,

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  your topic and purpose go in. The subject line

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  gave some examples earlier. It's maybe review and approve

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  last month sales figures.

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  That's a very clear topic

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  last month's sales figures,

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  and the purpose is to review and approve them

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  that goes in the subject line.

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  Everyone who just reads the subject of the email will still know

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  what's the point of the meeting is

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  you then put the purpose in the body of the invite.

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  You could repeat what was in

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  in the top line in the subject or you can expand it

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  again. We're not talking war and peace here.

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  We're not looking for 15 pages on what the purpose is.

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  We're looking for 12, maybe three sentences for this is why we are gathering today.

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  This is the thing that we are trying to do and the thing we're trying to achieve,

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  which leads you onto the output

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  state, what the output is

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  we're gathering to. We want to review and approve of last month's sales figures.

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  We're going to review them line by line,

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  make sure that everything is accurate because we had problems before

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  the output is a completed and approved set of sales figures.

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  That's something you could print out and holding your hat.

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  All three of these go in the invitation.

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  What do you get from this?

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  You're going to get to the point fast.

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  People are going to know why they're there and you're going to get what you need.

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  The reason you'll get to the point quickly is

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  you said in the invite. The point of the meeting.

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  You could even read that as your introduction. It's a very clear purpose.

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  People are going to know what it is that they're there to achieve,

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  which means people are going to know what they're there to achieve.

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  So that second question has been answered. And then you're going to get what you need

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  at the end, and that is critical to a successful meeting.

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  So what can you do now? You've heard these three pieces. What can you do

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  to make your own meetings better?

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  Well,

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  you can start right now and you can start using it today.

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  Go and take a look at a meeting invitation that you have sent

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  and then update it. If it doesn't include these things,

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  if you sent a blank meeting invitation

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  and these pieces of info into it

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  If you send a meeting invite with a few pieces of information in it,

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  check whether you have the topic, the purpose

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  and the output.

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  And if you don't

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  add them in

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  resend the invite

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  people aren't going to mind getting another email because

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  what they're going to receive will be much clearer,

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  and it will help them get ready for the meeting.

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  So this is what you can do today.

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  Go and look at your meeting. Invite

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  and see if you've got this information

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  and then make sure you're adding it in your future invites as well.

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  If you do this,

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  you are pretty much guaranteed

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  to have

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  great

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  meetings.

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  And if you do that,

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  your team is going to welcome spending time with you in these sessions.

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  So

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  don't wait.

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  Go and apply these three things topic purpose and output,

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  and go and have great meetings.

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  Thank you for listening

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  again. My name is Chris.

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  Finding you can find me on linked in or on my website at www dot chris spending dot com.

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  And I hope that you all have fantastic meetings from now on.

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  Thank you.

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  Bye.