Fed up with bureaucracy? Might be time to reform your meetings
Every organisation is either struggling with bureaucracy or terrified of becoming one as they grow.
But when companies reach a certain size, it’s not uncommon for them to have countless policies, practices, and structures in place that have accumulated over time.
Business leaders should think of this as an operating system. And just as a faulty operating system can wreak havoc on a mobile phone, a misguided company operating system is a recipe for all sorts of collective dysfunction.
So how can companies eliminate all the red tape, replacing it with more adaptive and human ways of working?
One area that causes immeasurable pain and waste is meetings.
Many of us spend countless hours in meetings, yet they often yield little action. Too often, they’re dominated by the loudest voices, not the best ideas.
Useless meetings are also a symptom of bureaucracy, so here are four ideas to help you streamline these sessions and upgrade your operating system.
On-the-fly
Good meetings have an agenda, but it’s not always practical to distribute one in advance.
Instead, allow the participants to quickly create an agenda together on-the-fly at the start of the meeting. Build a list based on what is present and alive for the team right now, not last week when the meeting was called.
Gain speed and focus by asking the person behind each item what they need to complete the task in hand, keeping them focused on the most efficient way to meet it. Once their need is met, move on. You’ll be amazed at how much you can do in an hour.
Free-flowing
At a key moment in every meeting – such as when a decision is made – halt the free-flowing conversation and instead have everyone speak in turn.
This allows everyone’s voice to be heard, which is powerful because equal talk time is one of the best predictors of team success.
While the round is in progress, everyone listens and nobody interrupts.
Consent, not consensus
Meetings are often the place where decisions are made. But rather than the most powerful person making every decision autocratically, focus instead on consent.
Consent is not consensus – it’s not going to make everyone happy.
Consent is the idea that “this proposal is safe to try”. If a decision is reversible and there isn’t too much at stake, isn’t it better to proceed and learn something, rather than waste hours debating?
Ditch the theatre
Finally, why not try to remove a recurring meeting from everyone’s diary and see what happens? I’ve seen teams save millions by eliminating what I call “meeting theatre” in favour of getting back to work.
Of course, meetings are just one domain. As highlighted in Brave New Work, the structure of teams, the way authority is distributed, and how compensation is set are all entwined in a company’s operating system.
If we make continuous, human-centric improvements, the spectre of bureaucracy can be beaten.