Important meetings, where decisions are made and strategies set, need to be primed for success. They are simply too critical to have people show up and begin thinking of the issues, problems, and opportunities under discussion for the first time.
In the ideal design, the meeting starts the moment the invitation goes out and the calendar is set. This is when the pregame work begins.
Prework is never busy work. It should be designed to get the juices and ideas flowing. Because of this preface, when people arrive at the meeting, they are ready to discuss and can dive right into the issues. This makes for powerful meetings.
Asking team members to read, respond, summarize, or clarify creates a common foundation to make the most of the time when people are in the same room to discuss the issues. Great prework design requires team members to engage, experience, collaborate, and digest all before the meeting.
The team leader or facilitator does more than just encourage some pre-thought. They ask team members to dig in and commit themselves to the data, information, or positions central to the discussion.
Too many teams and leaders have tried such a process and then abandoned it because team members failed to do the required work prior to the meeting. Leaders detest herding people who resist and say they are too busy, so they often hit the eject button and give up on what they know would be a highly additive exercise. The funny thing is that people are never too busy to engage prior to the meeting if they will be called out for arriving unprepared.
On better teams, the prework is the entry ticket to attend the meeting, no matter who you are or what status you hold on the team. If you don’t submit the prework assignment, there is simply no reason to show up. Team members get on board quickly when this is the case, and rarely do they resent it. Once they experience how much more productive the meeting is because of the prework, the idea sells itself.
Priming team members prior to the meeting adds energy, focus, and substance to the eventual discussion. Good leaders make it a habit to design valuable prework and insist that team members come prepared for the discussion. True meeting success occurs when preparation meets discussion. It’s time to make the best use of meeting time.
