How to Meet

From the Wall Street Journal on March 6, 2006; Page B3

Theory & Practice: Corporate Meetings Go Through a Makeover
Better Productivity Is Goal As Methods Differ to Boost Effectiveness of Employees
By PHRED DVORAK

So it isn't surprising that managers increasingly seek ways to make meetings more productive. At Silicon Valley start-up Ruckus Wireless, employees remove the chairs from some meetings so participants get to the point quicker.

Poor meetings waste time and money, but they also may harm employee health. Professors in the U.S. and Britain recently surveyed 676 employees, who said they spend an average of 5.6 hours a week in meetings. The employees got gloomier and more anxious about their jobs the more time they spent in meetings they considered ineffective, says Steven Rogelberg, a principal researcher.

That may explain why there is now an industry of professional "facilitators," complete with a 1,300-member international organization and standards to become a "Certified Professional Facilitator." These gurus say one sure warning sign of a bad meeting is that attendees don't know what they're doing there.

"A lot of people come to us and say, 'I have no idea why I'm in those meetings,' " says Janet Danforth, a certified facilitator. Ms. Danforth says one of her corporate clients determined that ineffective meetings were costing the company about $1 million a year in lost productivity for 16 high-ranking employees alone.

Like most meeting consultants, Ms. Danforth advises clients to have a clear purpose and an agenda before they start. Other common suggestions: Set strict time limits, make sure discussion stays on track and know who is going to make decisions. In her meetings, Ms. Danforth also forbids gadgetry like BlackBerry email devices and notebook computers.

Intel, of Santa Clara, Calif., requires all new hires to take a four-hour class in "Effective Meetings," featuring role-playing, quizzes and a 25-page handbook covering topics from the six rules of agenda-writing to the four essential roles to be filled at every meeting.

Agendas in Advance
Some of Intel's tips: Don't mix up housekeeping meetings for routine updates with those that aim to solve a specific problem; avoid "rat holes," or off-track discussions; and always prepublish agendas. Employees say the pointers aren't always religiously observed, but the standardized format helps.

Other companies have had success with radically different meeting techniques: Witness the experience of Triumph International (Japan) Ltd., a unit of a Swiss women's underwear maker.

At Triumph Japan, President Koichiro Yoshikoshi convenes a daily meeting at 8:30 a.m. sharp, at which he quizzes the company's managers on everything from the design of the new line of junior bras to the benefits of routing phone calls over the Internet. There is no agenda and no debate: Mr. Yoshikoshi decides on the topics of interest, and tries to finish each topic in two minutes or less, averaging about 40 topics in each hourlong session.

Mr. Yoshikoshi keeps the material related to each subject in its own clear plastic folder -- often popping documents into an overhead projector so his staff can see what he's referring to, a spokeswoman says.

The company's 50-odd top managers are required to attend or videoconference in from Triumph offices throughout Japan. If Mr. Yoshikoshi asks a question that no one can answer on the spot, he gives them a deadline for a reply -- usually the next day. For anything that is going to take more than a week to settle, Mr. Yoshikoshi demands a timetable -- within the week -- detailing exactly when things will get done.