The Marketing Corner
SORRY, HE’S IN A MEETING
Of course he is. He’s always in a meeting. After all, he’s in advertising, isn’t he? He’ll get back to you.
But don’t hold your breath. It may be a long meeting. Or worse yet, a long series of meetings.
In any collaborative business, meetings are unavoidable. And since few businesses are as collaborative as marketing and advertising, ours is a meeting-intensive environment.
Meetings exist to exchange information, to brainstorm and to review work in progress. But sometimes they also exist for their own sake, out of pure habit. Unless consciously brought under control, they chew up huge slabs of time. How often have you burned up two hours of your life in a meeting, only to realize that the only decision made was the time of the next meeting? Oh sure, clever things were said. Everybody was smart. Coffee and designer water were sipped. Issues raised. Points made. Clients dissed. Project statuses discussed – all or most of them “ongoing.”
So, how did that make the company’s work any better, or improve your day?
The two basic species of meetings are (1) Internal, with colleagues and/or clients attending; and (2) External, at the client’s office or pitching a new business prospect. These vary in size from one-on-one to dozens of people, depending on circumstances. But they don’t have to be endless windbag sessions that yield dinky results or no results at all.
Nobody here but us employees.
We don’t expect you to be a drill sergeant. But don’t let attendees get too comfortable. (One best-selling business guru suggested providing no place to sit in the meeting area. We stop short of such showboating. Nor do we endorse waterboarding to get ideas out of your personnel.)
On the other hand, it’s better not to serve refreshments. This is not a party, and besides, they’re your own people. No need to impress them! Discourage note taking. The physical process of writing distracts from the mental process of listening. Anything worth writing down should be memorable enough to write down after the meeting.
If the meeting is to disseminate information (statistics, budgets, production schedules, etc.), prepare a page or two – the less verbage the better – to hand out at the end of the meeting. It’s a good idea to distribute that information by e-mail before the meeting. That way you don’t have to waste time writing stuff on a display board so everyone can waste more time copying it down.
Nobody should be allowed to get away with saying twice, about the same assignment, “I’m working on it” or “It’s still in the pipeline.” Pipes are only so long, and deadlines are real. By meeting #2, “it” must be finished.
Realistically, revisions are necessary, but impose a cutoff point. Broadway shows go through revisions during rehearsal. But eventually the producers simply must “freeze the script.” No new lines. No new bits of business. No plot switcheroos. No new songs. Here’s the show we’re presenting on opening night, so get it straight.
Client or prospective client meetings.
Never waste time meeting with anyone – at your office or outside – who can’t sign a check or generate a purchase order for anything grander than a box of staples. Better no meeting at all than a wasted meeting charming some executive’s underlings, who are (like script readers at film studios) typically empowered only to say “no,” but not “go.” They can’t initiate projects or approve budgets. They know the political risk of recommending anything that might not excite their Higher-Ups. It’s career-threatening. Far safer for them to turn your proposal down than to espouse it and risk the scorn of their Betters.
It bears repeating: subordinates at client meetings are there to filter out unwanted advances, but have no authority to advance the flirtation. At best they can arrange a follow-up meeting – the one you should be having in the first place. The common practice of pre-meeting meetings, in one piquant Polish folk saying, is called “chewing the same cabbage twice.”
Make meetings meatier.
Whatever the purpose of your meeting is, whether with clients or your own people, just get into it. Executives and subordinates alike will appreciate your appreciation of the value of their time. A strict agenda and time limit will help you control the meeting. Be sure to limit the meeting only to people directly involved with agenda items. And end the meeting as close as possible to the pre-agreed time.
This will take some practice, but you’ll find it’s worth the effort.
It’s all about discipline. Time management means you manage time, it doesn’t manage you.
Keep an eye on the stall indicator.
If you’ve ever been in a courtroom, you know how often the outcome of a hearing is a “continuance” – the legal term for stalling.
Don’t let your meeting stall, marooned on some detail that can be assigned for someone to work out later, at latest, by the next meeting. One sign that the meeting is floundering is when you notice several people saying the same thing in different words. Or worse yet, saying different things with the same words – a symptom of imprecise definitions of the problem.
Some companies employ a secret code word to be used to inform the attendees that it’s time to wrap tings up. This is particularly useful when clients are present – unless, of course, they have broken your company code.
But cut people some slack.
In the case of brainstorming meetings, there are always some people whose best work is not spontaneous. They like to ruminate for a few hours or days. Wise managers take that into consideration, and allow for post-meeting responses. After all, taking the time to think things over isn’t such a bad idea.
Just like meetings, advice about meetings should be brief.
The best meeting is the briefest meeting possible that can end with decisive actions taken. By the time everyone leaves the room, at least one cake should be baked.
One efficient executive told me that if 12 people meet for one hour, but accomplish less than 24 man-hours of work, they have wasted time that could have been much better spent over martinis and dinner.
End of column. Time for a martini.
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Dear Villa, Obviously you are a person of keen discernment and uncommon interests. I am happy if I have been able, in some small way, to connect you with other cast iron buffs. They are fewer than the aluminum enthusiasts, but (perhaps predictably) more solid overall.
Comment by admin — May 30, 2010 at 07:54