Denise Brouillette, March 2010

You're leading a meeting. Things look like they're moving right along. Then wham! Within a second, someone's taken off with the agenda and you're left scrambling to quickly get things back on track before all the meeting time is eaten up with tangential talk.

What's wrong with that picture? Nothing if you're the scene stealer; but everything if you're the one running the show. Most meetings go adrift becuase all group members aren't clear enough about what they're there to accomplish. But if you start every meeting with... 

1. a purpose statement that includes
2. the discussion topics, and
3. the outcome you're seeking for each topic, you can't go wrong.

You're probably saying to yourself, "I already know this."  And yes, you do. But where most team leaders get into difficulty is not making it clear the end result required from each topic discussed. Here's a quick review of the basics.

There are 5 types of discussion topics for most work meetings:  

1. Information Topic:  Information exchange down, up, sideways.
2. Decision Topic:  Whatever is discussed leads to a decision. Exactly what people are deciding on has to be stated up front.
3. Solution Topic:  The group focuses on finding a fix. Of course, they need to be clear what the actual problem is first.
4. Approval Topic:  You're looking for the “go-ahead” from one or more attendees at the meeting.
5. Creative Topic:  You're searching for ideas.

When you roll your meeting's purpose statement in with discussion topics, and most importantly, the outcome expected from each topic discussed, you're highly likely to be able to keep people on track. 

4 examples that demonstrate how to do this.

"The purpose of today's meeting is to come to a decision on Item 1, figure out what we can do about Item 2, and get everyone's input for Items 3 and 4."  (Decision, Solution, Creative)

"Today's meeting agenda has 2 items – the first is to tell you what came out of the senior staff meeting that's relevant to us and get your quick reaction to it, and the second is to decide what to do next about that." (Information, Decision)

"Today's meeting is about getting ideas out on the table for Project X and deciding the next steps." (Creative, Decision)

 "We're here today to present our proposal and get your approval for the next round of work." (Approval)

With a meeting structured this way, if someone takes the meeting off topic, it's easy for the leader to refer to the meeting's stated purpose and topic items get back on track quickly.

See current and future Team Leadership articles for how you can significantly increase your odds of meeting success, how to prevent having unprepared meeting participants, how to quiet people who are running their own agendas and taking over the show, and how to keep your meetings focused and deliberate.