Return on Time
How much money and time would you save as a team or company if you optimized meetings with the same focus and rigor you bring to, say, IT? With a communications expert, trained to focus on this single issue, it’s easy to do just that. Return on Time requires no massive organizational disruption. Over a 6-10- month committment designed to trim 20-25% of the time spent in meetings, it’s a surgical, efficient three-step process:
1) Full diagnostic
Decision-maker audit: How does each manager like to receive information from direct reports? Some may want narratives; others may prefer bullet points or a take action / don’t take action headline with staccato-style summaries. Others might like sit-downs to tease out greater context, while others still may prefer emails only—no meetings. The goal: determine what’s wasting managers’ time and testing their patience. What would help them get to the best, fastest decisions?
Macro meeting efficiency review. Which overall team meetings are poorly or unthinkingly scheduled, inefficient, unnecessary, overlong or tend to invite participants who don’t need to be involved? A rough attempt will be made to calculate total number of minutes lost to wasted meeting time.
Meeting review, part 2: content and delivery. Meetings are audited (or recorded) to determine where time is being wasted with poor planning, bloated content, unsteady/ ineffective delivery, and overcomplicated decks (a fair assumption will be that 20%-25% of meeting time can be cut). Again, a rough attempt will be made to calculate the amount of wasted meeting time.
2) Training
Training begins with an all-hands workshop to establish the foundation and toolkit that will become the new basis for team communication culture (can accommodate up to 50 participants for an hour to a half-day workshop or 4 separate workshops). My method begins with the assumption that improved speech is more than a mere performance improvement, it’s a major shift in critical thinking.
Speech and presentations skills takeaway:
Communications Foundation 101—you’ll never think about communication the same way
Audience analysis
How to sharpen and distill your focus and purpose for every meeting and presentation
How to introduce and organize any meeting or presentation
How to choose words and data for better, more vivid connection and less overwhelm
How to make slides that are simple, lively, accessible, and fewer in number
How to rehearse and align your voice, body movement, word choices, and emotions with your material so you feel calm, confident, and competent
How to speak with purpose, punch, confidence, authenticity, and persuasiveness
Virtual meeting habits 101—sound, lighting, camera angle, eye contact
1:1 follow-up training
· Direct reports are given additional training to communicate upstream with managers inresponse to manager feedback
· Feedback period from top managers: has the training been effective? How effective?
· Continued 1:1 with team members until everyone reaches their goal and optimal efficiency
3) Fine-tuning and evaluation
Feedback will continuously be gathered regarding the Management meeting efficiency poll. Recommendations for meeting restructuring will be implemented with the help of HR and management. Agendas will be made more formal or submitted in advance where necessary. Routine meetings deemed low priority or inefficient will be reduced, eliminated, or repurposed. The minute-counting from Part 1 will continue, reminding team members how much time is being saved or wasted. Rewards for time saved will be awarded to team members most attentive to implementing the new measures.
Wrap up / Review with managers
Follow up/ continued polishing as needed and/or catching up with newly added team members
Objectives:
Time, money, and bandwidth saved as meeting time overall is reduced by 20%-25%
Time and bandwidth is improved for decision-makers resulting in better decision-making
Every team member gets heard, not just the loudest or most confident voices
Insights, not just information. Decision-makers grasp more easily what matters as team members get to the point faster and with greater clarity and team members think more strategically about what’s important
Meetings become strategic conversations, not endurance tests
Fewer follow-ups. Managers get what they need the first time
Stronger executive presence. Team members feel more useful and appreciated and position themselves more clearly for easier advancement
Greater workplace engagement and satisfaction. Teams and management alike feel better when workplace culture isn’t dulled by boring babble and everyone can ably demonstrate the intelligence you hired them for.
Save time and bandwidth for decision-makers. Optimize team-wide meeting culture. Improve your workplace experience. Teach your teams to optimize their presentation style.