Ranking Revolution

Doug: Welcome to the Ranking Revolution
Podcast, your go to source for strategies

and ideas for SEO, organic growth,
content creation, and online business.

I'm Doug Cunnington, your host.

In this episode, we're going
to talk about meetings.

We'll start on negative note.

That's always fun.

It's a great hook.

Are meetings, a total waste of time.

What good can possibly
come from a meeting?

Why can't we just email, send slack
or other instant messages, maybe work

within comments of Trello, Asana,
Basecamp, or whatever your project

management tool is, and those are a little
reactionary and I made all those up.

From my own personal experience,
but the thing is we can make

meetings more efficient,
effective, and generally not suck.

I want to go back and tell you a story
about the time I was interning in college.

And technically this was the co
op program out of Georgia tech.

Highly recommend it.

If you have influence on someone that
can do a co op program and you get real

life experience, usually pretty good pay.

So way back over 20 years ago, my
friend was telling me about a meeting

where he was participating in a
debate of the color of dots on a map

for some slide for a marketing deck.

And we all laughed about it because
there were 10 people spending

about an hour on this topic.

At least I think there were other meetings
to follow up on the color of the dots,

but it seemed like a total waste of time.

Now, my 10 year corporate career had
some good meetings and some bad ones.

And sometimes we talked about how
much a meeting actually cost in

terms of what the client was paying.

And I'm just making this up for
entertainment purposes, but let's say

it was 15 people in a meeting for one
hour with an estimated billing rate.

Of something like 250 per hour.

And that's a lot of money.

I mean, we're talking like six or 7, 000
to discuss potentially some dumb topic.

Sometimes they're great topics, but
a lot of times, especially the ones

where we're like, did we just meet for
an hour with a couple directors and

us lowly analysts or whatever, and.

We spent all this time in there and by
the way, they flew us to the location.

So we were staying in a hotel and
anyway, there's a lot of nonsense

in the whole situation here,
but let's talk about meanings.

They're not always a waste of time.

All right.

Just some of them are a waste
of time, but not all of them.

You sometimes can solve problems faster.

In a meeting, if you can go
back and forth immediately,

especially when there could be a
misunderstanding with an email or text.

And I know if you're just thinking,
Hey, meetings are a waste of time.

I'm sure that you can think of a time
where there was a misunderstanding

in either tone or the overall
meaning of something text based.

And.

It just, it comes down to like the
interpretations of how someone views

a certain word and the word choice
can be super important, or if it's a

technical problem, it is just faster
to go back and forth immediately.

So those are kind of obvious,
but I do want to point that out.

So I'm going to give you some
tips for running meetings.

And as a project manager, PMP, I.

Actually ran dozens and dozens
of meetings over my career.

And here are just some bullet points
to help your meetings go better.

Whether it's a small team or a
larger one, these will all help.

Some are obvious.

Some are a little more detailed.

Have a goal for the meeting.

And make it clear for the
participants, like what that goal is,

an agenda can help facilitate that.

Additionally, having a specific
facilitator for the meeting, someone

running the meeting, like a project
manager can help you stay on target,

can stay on schedule and avoid tangents.

One of the frustrating things is when
You do have an agenda, maybe you even

put in the amount of time that you're
going to spend on each one of the

topic areas, and then someone takes
it in a different direction, perhaps.

To a topic that you shouldn't even
be discussing in that meeting and

really destroys the whole agenda
and makes the meeting ineffective.

So if you can have a facilitator
that keeps you on target,

things go much better.

On that note, someone
should take notes nowadays.

There's AI that can hop in your virtual
meeting and it'll create a transcript.

It'll summarize the notes.

It's pretty sophisticated.

So it's straightforward.

I mean, I think you could probably
use your smartphone to listen in and

then use some post processing, but
the fact is someone should take notes.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

You don't have to introduce
technology into it.

The person that's taking notes
should also record action items with

clear owners and clear due dates.

If you don't have owners or due
dates, then no one's going to do

those action items or two or three
people will do those action items.

So you need to have clear owners.

Additionally, the person that's taking
notes should include next steps and

the steps after that if it's relevant.

So if there's a dependency on a
future task, the action item owner

can see who they're waiting on.

So basically, you know if
there's a prerequisite task

that needs to be completed.

Again, many of these
things are kind of obvious.

Make sure you have a goal, make sure you
have an agenda and don't go on tangents.

But it's really easy to get off target.

If you don't have someone that's owning
the facilitation of the meeting, it's

really easy for people to just go on and
on about something that's irrelevant.

Overall, stay organized and do these very
obvious things that everyone knows that

we should do, but almost no one does.

In those ineffective meetings, I'm going
to highlight three different meeting

types that might help you have, uh,
you know, effective meetings, and maybe

you could try them out on your team.

So number one is standup meetings.

I love the idea of standup meetings.

These are short.

Say 10 to 15 minutes.

It could vary with the size of
your team, but just think short.

The format is very simple.

Each team member provides a brief
update using the following structure.

What did you do yesterday?

You can list significant achievements.

If you were just in a holding
pattern, say, Hey, I did this

shit that I was supposed to do.

Number two, what do you plan to do today?

Outline the tasks of what you're
planning on doing that day.

Number three, one of the most important
parts of this whole thing, mention

any roadblocks or challenges or
anything that is holding you back

and that you need assistance on,
this is the main part of the meeting.

So you talk about what you did.

You talk about what
you're going to do today.

And then you talk about anything
that's holding you back.

And then the final part of the meeting
is addressing those roadblocks.

So it should be very quick, right?

You're not going to solve the problem
in the meeting, but you need to talk

about who the person with the problem
needs to go to, you can assign action

items quickly, or you could identify
roadblocks that need further discussion

outside of the standup meeting.

Again, standup meetings are fast.

So.

Can't have like an hour
long stand up meeting.

That's too long.

I think regardless of
the size of the team.

So it needs to move quick and you
need to find out what's holding

anyone up and how to solve that
problem, who can help that person.

I'm going to mention two
other types of meetings.

One is a status meeting,
and I'll talk about.

The purpose of a status meeting.

The other is an issue meeting,
and these are distinct.

I'm talking about these two kinds
of meetings because a lot of

times people blend these together.

So you have a status meeting and
then someone tries to solve a

problem in the status meeting.

They try to solve an issue in the status
meeting and it doesn't work because it.

Impacts the schedule of the meeting.

Cause sometimes solving a
problem will take some time.

It takes them back and forth
and it kind of ruins both.

So you need to separate these two.

So a status meeting is designed to
provide an overview of the progress

on the work going on, ongoing tasks,
projects, your goals, whatever.

It's a regular check in to make sure
everyone on the team is on the same page

about what's been accomplished, what's
in progress, and what's planned next.

It's status.

The issue meeting is focused
on identifying and discussing

and resolving specific issues
that are impeding progress.

It's a problem solving session.

Aimed at finding solutions to critical
issues that may have come up, and I'm

going to go over at least four reasons why
it's very effective to separate these two.

Now, quick note, one of my first
big roles where I had executive

exposure and I got to really own
something I owned an issues meeting.

In an issues tracking situation,
I was an issue manager overall.

One little tricky thing is we had
an issue management status meeting.

So I had a list of all the issues
that we were going over, but I was

talking about the status of the issue.

So there's a little overlap here, right?

We weren't solving problems.

I was just telling management,
Hey, we have these 10 problems.

Here's the owner.

Here's the due dates.

Here's where we are.

Here's why we're behind here
is what escalation help I need.

So we were doing a status
meeting about the issues, but

we were not solving the issues.

I did have to schedule issue meetings
where I brought the proper stakeholders,

usually from various teams, different
vendors, all opposing forces to help talk

through, identify, and solve the issue.

But the point that I'm making here is
a status meeting and an issue meeting.

They're different things.

So if you have your weekly status
meeting to make sure everybody's doing

stuff, maybe that's sort of a air
quotes, like an all hands type meeting.

That's cool.

Get the status.

Don't try to solve problems there.

You solve the issues in another meeting.

So let's talk about why separating
these two is so important.

I think I illustrated some of the,
you know, direct ideas about what you

cover in each one of the meetings,
but it, when you separate the two,

It provides clarity and focus.

So the status meetings allow team members
to just provide their updates, what

they've been working on, where they're
going, what they will be working on.

And that's it.

If you mention an issue, that's cool.

You can say, Hey, I am having this issue.

Of course, we're tracking it somewhere
else and we're not going to try and

solve it here, but it allows your
status meetings to be status meetings.

So you can get stuff done.

You also have better problem
solving because you're not trying

to solve these issues in the status
meeting because you have a bunch

of parties that shouldn't be there.

The issue meeting should
just have the right people.

Again, it could be from various teams,
but it's the right stakeholders to solve

the problems and it avoids derailing
the agenda for the status meeting.

The third one is around
improved communication.

It keeps everyone aligned
and aware of their roles and

responsibilities in the status meeting.

And then those detailed discussions in the
issue meeting can help people understand

the specifics and ensure everyone's on
the same page about resolving The issues.

So again, just keeping these
separated helps each of the

meetings go more effectively and
efficiently and stay on topic.

The thing is, you know, stepping back
for a second and zooming out, the

worst thing is like when you're in a
meeting and you don't need to be there.

There are certain people
that need to be there.

But when you have the full team or a
bunch of people that are not impacted,

you're just wasting their time.

And I think that illustrates like
the problem with just having a random

meetings that are without direction.

And you're trying to solve problems with
people there that don't need to be there.

And finally.

This is kind of baked in
for all the little details.

You have better productivity overall.

So I guess I just kind of
highlighted it in a certain way.

If you have the right people working
on the right tasks at the right time,

because you have proper status meetings,
you have proper issue meetings, then.

There's a reduced impact, a reduced
likelihood that you're going to

have the wrong people in a meeting,
feeling like they're wasting time.

And when you have these concentrated
problem solving sessions, you're ensuring

that the issues are addressed promptly.

They don't linger.

The right owner has the action
item with the due date, and you

can track that very closely.

So.

Those are a lot of tips.

And if you just take one or two,
I think you're probably going

to have better meetings overall.

Stay organized, stay on topic, have
someone that can facilitate your meetings

and it shouldn't feel like a waste.

I want to highlight something.

Don't forget the regular meetings
with your team can help develop

relationships and help the teams gel.

Especially if you have virtual teams.

So sometimes it feels like a waste to
chit chat about life and other topics

and random things that are unrelated to
work, but you actually should do that.

Sometimes if you just have sterile
full business meetings with all work

and full on efficiency, and you.

Only talk about the agenda.

It can lead to bad morale on the team.

So it's really a balancing act overall.

And I'm, I'll say, I have not been a super
fan of meetings, uh, over the last few

years and occasionally I'll get an email.

Someone says, Oh, let's hop on
a call and let's talk about it.

What's the agenda?

Can we solve this without meeting?

And a lot of times you can, but when you
have a larger team, you know, thinking

back to an episode recently talking about
small teams and large teams, when you have

a larger team, you do need to meet, you
need to have those communication channels.

You need to have your
status meeting set up.

You need to have your standup meetings.

You should have issue meetings because
things are surely going to go wrong and

you're going to have to solve problems
that pop up and having a specific

meeting to solve a specific problem is
really effective versus trying to do it.

The virtually.

Asynchronous way where you're on base
camp and you're posting messages.

And it takes, you know, six hours
for someone to get back to a message

because you're not located in the
same time zone and stuff like that.

So meetings can be effective.

You just have to make
sure that you run them.

In an organized fashion.

So if you have any thoughts
on meeting, shoot me an email

feedback at ranking revolution.

And by the way, if you enjoy the
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Tell a friend.

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Direct them to a specific episode that
you know that they would be interested in.

So thanks a lot.

And we'll catch you on the next episode.