Rules to Better Meetings - 14 Rules

Meetings are awesome to brainstorm ideas and get in-sync. For some topics they are way more effective than typing on a group chat. There are a few benefits that meetings have, which make them useful to have (for the appropriate topics/reasons).

1. In the simplest and most basic way, a meeting defines the team, the group, or the unit. Those present belong to it; those absent do not
2. A meeting is the place where the group revises, updates, and adds to what it knows as a group
3. A meeting helps every individual understand both the collective aim of the group and the way in which their own work and everyone else’s work, can contribute to the group’s success
4. If a back and forth is likely for the topics on the agenda, a meeting may be the best way to let everyone have their say, so the group can align on a shared commitment to a course of action

However, a meeting is an expensive thing, as the operational cost of a 1 hour meeting with 5 attendees is not 1 hour. It is at least 5 hours, plus the time it takes everyone to get back into the zone after the interruption to their usual workflow.

Therefore, only schedule a meeting if the purpose couldn’t have instead been achieved via an email or a group chat (e.g. Microsoft Teams).

Bloating a meeting with unnecessary numbers is the #1 way that a meeting can be doomed... before it starts. Any meeting with more than 10 people is destined to have people attend but who do not participate or contribute. Aim to keep it to 6 or fewer.

A few ways to do this are to:

1. Analyse the agenda to see whether everyone has to be present for every item (it may be possible to structure the agenda so that some people can leave at half time and others can arrive)
2. Split it into two separate, smaller meetings rather than one big one
3. Determine whether one or two groups can be asked to resolve some of the topics in advance, so that only one of them needs to attend with the resolutions

Meetings can be good for the few and unproductive for the many.

A meeting can be useful if it meets these three criteria:

• You know what you're going to do in it
• You do the thing
• At the end, somebody emails the summary and action items out:
  ‘OK, we’re all going to do these things going forward.’

Scheduling meetings can often feel like a necessary chore, especially when they lack a clear purpose or agenda. Calls or video meetings, without any clear agenda or purpose, are where your joy and energy go to die.

Here’s how to ensure your meetings are effective and worthwhile. Before a meeting, to give it the best chance of success, you should make sure you have done the following:

• Create a meeting agenda prior to the meeting

  • Give each attendee a copy (usually in the appointment)
  • If the discussion strays from the topic, everyone should use the agenda to help keep it on track
  • Possibly mark items on the agenda as “For information,” “For discussion,” or “For decision”
  • Don't add unnecessary agenda items. You won't have time in the future. If you wouldn’t want to do the thing tomorrow, don’t say yes to doing it a month from now
• Send an appointment to all meeting attendees to ensure the meeting appears on their calendar
• The meeting starts the minute the invite is sent, not when it physically starts That means read the agenda and prepare. For example if feedback is needed on a large document, give people the link to the document + give advanced warning that their feedback on the document will be taken ahead of time
• Make sure all the presentation setup is working E.g. Have 'AV Setup meetings'.
• For attendees, if you are going to be late, contact the organizer or the person in charge of the meeting to let them know that you are running late and what time you will be arriving.

Waiting for participants to join a meeting can be awkward and make people feel disengaged. It's crucial for the meeting leader to maintain a positive and energetic atmosphere during this time to set the tone for the rest of the meeting.

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• Avoid sitting silently or showing frustration about the wait
• Do not dive into the main agenda without the key participants present
• Avoid using filler time to discuss irrelevant or heavy topics that could disengage participants
• Do not use this time just to look at yourself in the camera view

Here are some tips to ensure meetings start with energy and engagement while waiting for attendees:

1. Have Filler Conversations

Engage with those who have already joined by discussing light topics, recent wins, or non-work-related subjects. This helps break the ice and keeps the atmosphere lively.

2. Acknowledge New Participants

When someone new joins, pause the current conversation to acknowledge them. It’s a simple yet effective way to make everyone feel included.

Example:

• In chat, type: “Waiting for Bob”
• Say: “Welcome Mary, just waiting for Bob. We are currently talking about the status of the backlog while waiting.”

3. Avoid Jumping into the Agenda

Starting the agenda too early can cause confusion for latecomers. Instead, use this time for informal discussions or to recap previous topics lightly.

4. Use Humor or Share Light Stories

A good laugh can make people more comfortable and open to participation. Share an interesting story or a fun fact to ease the waiting time.

5. Encourage Participation

Ask questions that prompt responses from those present. This can be something simple like “How was your weekend?” or “What’s one thing you’re excited about this week?”

By following these tips, you can ensure that meetings start on a positive note, making everyone feel valued and engaged right from the beginning.

Anchoring is a cognitive bias where an initial piece of information (the "anchor") heavily influences subsequent judgments and decisions. This bias can infiltrate various aspects of our lives, including workplace interactions and negotiations. Recognizing how anchoring works is crucial to making informed and unbiased decisions. Custom software is difficult to estimate and using an anchor too early or without the necessary rigour can create issues.

For example, in meetings, it's vital to be aware of anchoring, as the first opinions can shape entire discussions. Seniors and experts can influence a meeting's direction and create anchoring effects; therefore, they should offer their ideas last.

Video: Jeff Bezos: Truth is uncomfortable | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips (6 min)

Negative impacts of anchoring

An anchor can limit adaptability, making it harder to find mutually agreeable solutions. For instance, a developer’s best guess on a project budget might discourage the client from choosing your solution looking for other options that could be better suited and more cost-effective.

Key reasons to avoid providing an anchor

• Limited information: Early estimates often lack the detailed requirements and complexity analysis needed for an accurate price. Setting an anchor prematurely creates a false sense of precision and sets unrealistic expectations
• Loss of flexibility: A strong initial anchor can stifle negotiation and make it harder to adapt your proposal as more information becomes available. This can hurt your ability to arrive at a price that's fair for both you and the client
• Damaged trust: If the final estimate varies significantly from the initial anchor, it can erode the client's trust in your process. Transparency and an open discussion of uncertainties upfront are key to building a strong client relationship

How to deal with anchoring

Sales need to establish the client’s anchor, if they have one, by asking:

1. "Can you describe the process you need improved and its main challenges?"
2. "How does this issue impact productivity or costs?"
3. "What's your decision-making process and who's involved?"
4. "What's your timeline and budget for a solution?"

Key Takeaways

• Be aware of how anchoring bias can influence decisions, both within yourself and others
• Proactively seek diverse perspectives to mitigate the bias
• Approach initial information critically, even if it seems compelling, to avoid getting overly 'anchored' in one viewpoint
• Use anchoring strategically for setting expectations or initiating negotiations, but be prepared to adjust as needed

Clients often have an implicit budget or value anchor in their minds when discussing projects. This anchor can be based on a budget set by their business or a perceived value. If you don't uncover this anchor early, it can lead to misaligned expectations and project dissatisfaction.

Understand the Client's Perspective

Clients might not always communicate their budget or value expectations openly. It's crucial to ask the right questions to uncover these hidden anchors.

• Ask direct questions: Questions like "Do you have a budget range in mind for this project?" or "What value do you expect this project to deliver?" can prompt clients to reveal their anchors.
• Understand their constraints: Discussing their financial constraints and priorities helps in understanding the flexibility of their budget.
• Look for cues: Pay attention to any indirect hints about their budget or value expectations during conversations.

Common Types of Anchors

Clients typically come to meetings with one or more of the following types of anchors:

Budget Set by the Business

Often, clients have a budget set by the board or a financial decision-maker within their business. This budget is closely linked to the problem being solved.

Example: If the problem is driving to the shop, but the only solution presented is buying a Lamborghini, and the client doesn't have the funds, this high cost will act as an anchor preventing the purchase.

Experience-Based Anchor

Clients might have previous experience with software or services that set their expectations. These experiences create a benchmark in their minds.

Example: A client who has previously developed software with a specific budget might use that experience as a reference point for current projects.

Techniques to Uncover Hidden Anchors

Using the right techniques can make it easier to identify the client's budget or value anchor.

Direct Inquiry

Directly ask about the budget in a professional manner. This can clear any ambiguities from the start.Be careful, often clients think revealing this can limit negotiations and that if a budget is revealed this will create its own anchor. Clients will either avoid or be misleading within this approach.

Comparative Questions

Ask questions that compare their project with similar past projects.

Value-Oriented Questions

Focus on what the client values most in the project. This can often reveal their budget priorities.

Indirect Inquiry Techniques

Directly asking a client for their budget is not always effective. There's a fair bit of gamesmanship in sales, and clients may not always be truthful about their budgets and expectations. In these cases, use indirect inquiry techniques to uncover the hidden anchor.

Estimating Size and Value

Clients are less likely to give deceptive answers about the size and value of the problem being solved.

Scenario-Based Questions

Ask scenario-based questions to understand their priorities without directly discussing money.

Historical Comparisons

Clients can provide insights based on their past experiences without directly revealing their budget.

Intelligent Inquiry Based on Client Size

The approach to uncovering hidden anchors should vary depending on the size of the client.

Large Multinational Companies

For large clients, the problems they face and their budgets are typically substantial. However, direct questions about budget can still be met with resistance or deceptive answers. Focus on understanding the scope and impact of the problem.

Small Businesses

Small businesses often have strict budget constraints. Directly asking about their budget might make them self-conscious. Instead, discuss the size of the problem and practical constraints.

Aligning Expectations

Once the hidden anchor is uncovered, align the project scope and deliverables with the client's budget and expectations.

• Set realistic expectations: Clearly communicate what can be achieved within the budget.
• Adjust the scope if necessary: If the client's budget is lower than required, discuss possible adjustments to the project scope to fit their budget.
• Provide value-based proposals: Offer different options that provide varying levels of value and cost, helping clients choose the best fit for their needs and budget.

Conclusion

Uncovering the hidden anchor with clients ensures that both parties are on the same page regarding budget and expectations, leading to a successful project outcome. By asking the right questions and aligning project goals, you can avoid misunderstandings and deliver value effectively.

Any good meeting has a clear goal, and an agenda that breaks that goal up into items that are “For information,” “For discussion,” or “For decision”.

A few other ways to make the most of the attendees' time would be:

• The early part of a meeting tends to be more lively and creative than the end of it, so if an item needs mental energy, bright ideas, and clear heads, put it high up on the list
• Start with the low hanging fruit so you get some decisions made
• Keep the important topics closer to the front, than the end
• Some items unite the meeting while others divide the members. The leader may want to start with unity before entering into division, or they may prefer the other way around. The point is to be aware of the choice and to make it consciously. It is always a good idea to end the meeting on a unifying item
• Don't get side-tracked for too long by urgent, but not important, items. Keep non-important topics timeboxed
• If your meeting is more than an hour or two, consider adding a break
• To improve future meetings, at the end of the meeting, do a quick debrief (aka Retro) to see how long the meeting took, if anything was covered that didn't need to be, etc.

The primary objective of most meetings should be to establish clear next steps. These steps should be broken down into action items and assigned to the responsible individuals, with all other attendees CC’d.

It's recommended to designate a scribe who drafts action points during the meeting and assigns them directly to those responsible for completing the tasks. The scribe should also document any decision-making process by writing down each person's arguments. After writing down everyone’s comments on the options, the notes can be reviewed as a group to better inform what the best course of action might be. If the scribe hasn't been designated at the start, simply ask: "Who will be the scribe?"

Common action items may include:

• Outcomes from the meeting’s agenda
• Items that may be off-topic and require more discussion by subsets of the meeting’s attendees – aka a “parking lot”
• Ad hoc tasks that come up from brainstorming, usually sent as separate email tasks or created as PBIs in a backlog
• Scheduling the next meeting

There are several effective ways to capture action items and notes during a meeting - here are the recommended options:

Option 1: Teams Meeting Notes tab

In a scheduled Teams meeting, the Notes tab is the ideal place to record information, as it keeps everything connected to the meeting’s context.

The meeting organiser should allow time after the meeting to check the action points before their next meeting. This can seen as a summary page at the end of the meeting.

Option 2: Quick and dirty

During the call, type your key action items or decisions directly into a Teams message.

Once you've noted everything down, ask everyone in the call to "Like" 👍 the message if they agree with the summary.

This helps ensure consensus and provides a quick way to confirm that everyone is on the same page without the overhead of creating a new Loop.

Option 3: Loop it up

For more detailed or complex notes, create a new Loop page and share the link with the group.

As the discussion progresses, use the Loop to collaboratively edit and refine the notes.

After the meeting, once you’ve created PBIs (Product Backlog Items) or other tasks based on the notes, include a link to the corresponding PBIs and remember to “zz” (mark as obsolete) the Loop notes.

This prevents anyone from accidentally editing the old notes without realizing that a newer, finalized version exists.

As businesses become larger and more complex, it's harder for the decision makers to keep up to date with every product change or be in every meeting. Responsibilities for decision making cannot be delegated but gathering the information to make an informed decision can.

One common tactic is to have a delegate attend the meeting on their behalf and then loop them in at the end, bringing them up to date with an executive summary.

Here are some tips to doing this effectively:

1. Ensure the meeting has an agenda

   • It should list the delegate (who is receiving the information)
   • The last 5 minutes of the meeting will be used to loop in someone else
2. Take notes during the meeting
3. Summarize the info/action items with the other people on the call
4. Call up the person you want to loop in

5. Loop them in (done by the delegate)

   • Lead with the main message and action items. For example, "We need to adjust X in product Y" or "We should look into using X on the next project"
   • Include a recommendation where possible
   • Group information around the most important themes
   • Consider it an executive summary - if you have to recite the meeting, then it isn't a summary. If everything is important, then nothing is important.
   • If the delegate says something incorrect the other attendees of the meeting have a chance to correct them

With this strategy, the decision maker can get to the important points quickly. They can be told:

• What's important - Why should they care?
• What action needs to be taken
• What are the choices - don't leave out the recommendation
• What decisions have to be made and when

They know that there is a lot more detail behind what appears to be a one-line summary. If they want more detail, they can drill down or ask for more information.

Keeping to your meeting’s timebox shows that you respect your attendees, and allows for you and them to be efficient and able to plan their days effectively. One meeting going over by 30 minutes can have knock on effects for the rest of the day, and a culture of this will create that feeling of “meeting dread” that can be so common.

Always start your meetings on time. Especially for meetings that are regular, as it will teach your attendees that they need to be there from the start, and they will not be waited for.

You can (and should) still have a few minutes of informal conversation at the beginning and end of each meeting, but don’t let it get out of hand.

Announce your arrival

To help get the meeting started on time, you should let other attendees know that you have arrived/joined.

In a Teams meeting, at the scheduled start time you can use the "Request to Join" button in teams.

Go to Meeting | Participants | Request to Join

If the meeting is in person (e.g. at a cafe), you should let other attendees know when you have arrived. Send a Teams message or SMS, e.g.

“I’m here, 10 minutes early. No stress, see you soon.”

Make sure that you cover as much of the agenda as possible within the timebox, and keep other topics to a minimum.

When you identify topics that do need to be hashed out, but are off topic and don't need to be covered in this meeting, keep track of them in a “Parking Lot”.

E.g. During the meeting you can call out “Off topic. I think that topic should be saved for the “Parking Lot”. Who is interested in joining that?”

See it in the video at around 9:00

It can be difficult to get everybody into a meeting, especially these days when many meetings are online. It is important that time is not wasted in these situations, so it's good to be proactive and have a plan for when the decision maker is busy.

Make it a ceremony

You have already shared the agenda, so pick out the best item and ping the decision maker on teams before the meeting:

"We're meeting in 30 minutes, I'm excited to be talking about xxx"

Be persistent

Once you have done the above, you can start the meeting without the decision-maker. You may choose to start with the less important items in the agenda, or the ones that won't require a final decision ("For information" items) that can be easily summarised at the end of the meeting.

I’m here, where is everyone else?

If you join a meeting and the other attendees haven't joined yet, use the ”Request to Join” button in teams.

Teams | Participants | Request to Join

This will remind the team that the meeting has started just in case they missed the calendar reminder.

Microsoft Teams makes it super easy to record meetings, whenever you are presenting something important or making impactful decisions, the meeting scribe should 'hit record'.

Before recording, let the attendees know that the meeting will be recorded (Teams has a popup that does this automatically).

Why record meetings?

• Document decisions - If design decisions are made in a meeting, having a record means you can go back and check what was said.
• Easy to Share - You can send YouTube links to clients or distribute internally
• Training Material - Use the recordings for onboarding or as case studies
• Post-Meeting Analysis - Review to make your next meeting even better
• Remote Inclusion - Helps remote or absent team members stay in the loop (Its always better if they can attend)

Storing recordings

When you record meetings in Teams, they are stored in Microsoft Stream. Microsoft Stream will delete recordings, so ensure the meeting scribe downloads the recording and uploads it to YouTube.

After recording find the link to the recording in the meeting chat

1. Click the 'Copy to' button and move the file to a relevant Team's channel

2. Move the recording to a relevant Team's channel

3. If you are going to share the video, upload it to YouTube and send the link