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Communication

Run Effective Meetings: Insights from a Google Expert

I recently completed a training on how to run effective meetings, led by Google’s Productivity Advisor (yes that’s an official title), Laura Mae Martin.

It was a 30-minute training but I’ve summarized my learnings down below:

Key Takeaways

PAR

Every single meeting should include PAR -

  • Purpose (everyone knows why we’re meeting)
  • Agenda (pre-read needs to be sent via email or included in the calendar invite
  • Results (what is the ideal outcome of this meeting?)

Value

Each meeting participant should either be:

  • Adding value (this discussion couldn’t have taken place without [this person]); OR
  • Getting value (okay thanks, information shared in this meeting will help me make a better decision)

This means the responsibility for having an effective meeting is split evenly between the organizer and the participants:

  • E.g. Organizer is responsible for sending a concise pre-read, and the participants are responsible for reading it and coming to the meeting with questions

Fight for your time

If you're not getting value as a meeting participant, challenge the organizer in accordance with your company's culture.

Be direct or phrase your feedback in a way that works for you.

For example at Google, I would feel comfortable telling someone more senior that:

“this meeting might not be the best use of our time, is it possible for me to comment my feedback directly within the document?”

If a direct approach doesn’t work for you, remember it’s all about how you phrase the feedback:

“I see your calendar is jam-packed. Would you mind sharing the agenda items ahead of time so I can come to the meeting prepared and maybe give us both 15 minutes back?”

This last point actually resonated with me the most because I hate whiners; we all have colleagues who come out of a meeting saying, “Wow that was a waste of time.”

But, in my opinion, if you - as a participant - didn’t take action to fight for your own time, then it’s really on you.

What do you all think? Do you agree? Disagree? Do you want an updated “How to run effective meetings” video?

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