Meetings Made Easy: How to Create Talks People Want to Attend

You have just checked an e-mail and discover you are now being asked to attend a meeting. Now, what's running through your mind? There are some things that we need to discuss about meetings. Does it have some worth to you? Is it being called to fulfill the needs of someone’s ego? Finally, you should ask yourself, is this an "I want to attend" meeting or an "I have to attend" meeting? Or is this a recreational meeting, meeting to be having a meeting?

The first question I always have is why are we having this meeting in the first place? And if the answer comes back—“this is the way we've always done it before.”; stop and immediately reevaluate.  First, that canned response does not answer my question of why or purpose. When you send out a request for meetings within the different shops, precincts or divisions, remember each of them has their own daily/weekly timetables. Stop and think, how much will this meeting impact them?

One suggestion I would offer, is to send out with the announcement of a meeting requesting what times would be best suited for them. You do not know their schedule for the week. Offer alternative times, in the morning or afternoon, for them to respond to.  You may have more productivity if participants are feeling they have input, and it is also conducive for them to be there. 

Now, when we conduct meetings, we always must look at two things. What is the desired outcome and what is the impact on your staff? When you beckon this many staffers away from their normal, stop and think for a minute. How many people are attending, and what is their hourly rate. How much money are you investing in this time span? Also, add travel time to and return to their assignment. Meetings can be a huge outlay in your budget. Take the time to plan them well, make your investment worth its while. 

The length of meetings is always another problem. Years ago, I worked for a city manager, and I observed him closely. If a meeting went past one hour, he gets up and walked out. Then later you would have to call his office, and he would want to know why did you waste his time?  In his opinion and world,  if you could not conduct your business in one hour, you had too much on the agenda or were not focused. After one of his career building or ending conversations with him, you learned.  I discovered that a one-hour meeting should be the maximum to fit the schedules of other bureau managers. Once said that if it goes too long, you might as well have a called it a conference. 

I just recently was listening to someone who told me that there's an acronym of I.C.E. that you should use in planning your meetings. The “I” is for inspirational. The “C” is for convenient. The “E” represents exciting. Let's explore these separately. One of the focuses of the meeting should be inspirational. If we are having just a meeting to discuss the same humdrum items, why don't you send it out on e-mail or conference call? How to motivate your attendees? You know the discussion topics, include them in the invitation and the attached handouts. We could be speaking on budgets, crime data or planning for future events. Attach them as a PDF to the mail. This will save time by not having to hand it out and allows everybody to read it prior to discussions. This allows some to research it so they will offer more informed responses or defenses. Informed participants enter the meeting ready to engage the issues. 

Convenient? I have already spoken of this. Is this meeting held at a convenient, central location that is good for all?  Poll them to find out what are the best times for them. You will not suit all, there will be conflicts. But minimizing conflicts will pay off. If a participant has already scheduled a precinct meeting, maybe they can politely pass this up or delegate an alternate to attend, try being considerate.  

And finally, is this exciting?  If we are discussing the same humdrum things, try sending out an email or memo as a reminder and save valuable meeting times for more substantive issues. If  we are doing things that are of worth, it can be exciting. If we are improving our employees abilities, safety and missions, we are there. The way they perform, lowering crime or improving service delivery, or improving your budget, it's exciting. Make sure you spend time investing in the planning of worthy meeting topics. 

A good measure of meetings is also the attendance factor, which is a driving factor.  Granted, law enforcement has evolving events which may divert staff from being at a meeting, it's called handling business. But is attendance always a good measure? If everybody is ordered to be there and it is a mandatory meeting, then was it worth it? One thing that we do not measure in law enforcement is the “parting experience” of a meeting. Often you look for rolling of eyes, sighs or those who just storm out and do not engage others afterward. The true experience of a meeting should be to focus on implementing change and improvements. You accept that this was a worthy event you attended. Also, was there some respect for all? I often remember the old Compstat meetings were usually bloodlettings. And on your way back to your job assignment, you question why you attended. Did you feel it was worth your effort to be there, and what was its ultimate goal?

Meeting is like planning. It is easy to explain why you called the meeting to prepare for a future event. It is very difficult to explain why you did not plan to face an event, and there will be a failure to plan or prepare excuse tour. Review who runs the best meetings. What do they do that makes their meetings successful. Then do some R & D….rip-off and duplicate them. So, call this acquiring or stealing, but we can learn from those who are successful.