How to Run a Bad Meeting As Usual?
A boring and ineffective meeting can not only destroy team members’ passion but also wear everyone out as time passes.
Next, let us show you how to run an ineffective meeting.
1. Don’t be clear about the meeting time
First, don’t schedule a meeting with a clear time. For example, if you need to organize a meeting, just tell everyone to have a meeting tomorrow morning.
Please pay attention, the key is to AVOID discussing an agreed time schedule, i.e. tomorrow at ten o’clock.
In this way, most participants will be late or even miss the whole meeting, which makes it more meaningless.
2. Don’t set an inspiring theme
The second key to running a meaningless meeting is NEVER discussing an inspiring theme or clear agenda.
Once your team understands the meeting objectives, everyone will start to discuss, share and collaborate effectively, and even make actionable decisions.
Believe me, that’s not what you are expecting.
To make things worse, don’t articulate the meeting goals and instead encourage everyone to discuss anything he wants, such as the restaurant to go to at night, or to vote for places to travel to during weekends.
That’s the easiest way to screw your meetings.
3. Don’t manage time at meetings
There is another common factor for running frustrating meetings, that is to make it drag on forever.
To make it happen, you should never use a timer or similar tools during the meeting.
A ticking clock will not only keep everyone engaged but also help the facilitator better prepare the agenda and control the meeting during the whole process.
A meeting dragging on without time management will help everyone get enough rest and “practice” their patience.
4. Don’t use a meeting framework
A good framework or template should NOT be allowed if you want to run an unproductive meeting.
Preparing a complete and structured framework before a meeting is a “poison” that will immediately keep everyone well aligned with the objectives and turn everything on track.
So the right way is to allow everyone to follow his instincts and spark ideas to broaden the discussion. Nevertheless, our goal is to screw the meeting as usual.
5. Don’t take meeting notes
The biggest benefit of a meaningless meeting is having no takeaways from it. No one cares about meeting notes or action plans.
Taking notes or recording the next steps is such a tedious job that no one loves. Instead, we encourage you to get everyone a coffee right away after a lengthy and boring meeting.
If you are a facilitator, you should not assign someone to take this job before the meeting so that no one will be surprised by a great summary or clear action items at the end.
6. Don’t reach consensus during a meeting
Please keep the following in mind:
Meeting and discussion are separate things. Any effort to make decisions and reach consensus should NOT be encouraged.
Without any consensus, the discussion will continue to drag on and even stray away from the original agenda.
No agreement, no decision, no action.
That is the ultimate goal of running a meaningless and ineffective meeting.
Thank you for allowing us to share with you on running a bad meeting in different ways.
Most importantly, at this moment we believe you’ve already mastered some of the best ways to run an effective and efficient meeting, even online with remote teams.
Those are some secrets that we really want to share with you today.
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