Meetings From Hell? 8 Ways To Fix Them

“I can’t wait to sit in another hour-long meeting!” — said No One. Ever.

It’s bad if an employee dreads it. It’s worse if you’re the one who called the finance meeting and you dread it.

Even when you keep them short or as infrequent as possible, finance meetings can induce both groans and possible napping.

It’s up to you to make sure they’re fruitful and not meetings from hell.

Here are eight sure-fire ways to get and keep them on track:

1. Build an Agenda – And STICK to It

Agendas not only get your attendees ready for what’s coming, they also help you focus on the specifics of the meeting.

You’re less likely to go off on tangents if you actually write the agenda. It can even be a quick email. Let it guide the meeting.

That two minutes of work will save you a lot more time in the long run. Plus you won’t miss key points requiring you to call another meeting.

2. Don’t Be Afraid To Change The Subject

While you need to stick to the agenda, a slight deviation may help at times.

If the meeting gets too focused on one subject, you’re bound to lose some of your people if you keep batting the same issue around.

So if someone brings up an aside, go with it. Example: Say you’re discussing next year’s budget breakdown, and a few employees express concerns about the quarterly outlook. Let them list the concerns, and say you’ll table those to focus on in a future meeting. Then draw everyone back to the next agenda item.

It shows employees you’re listening to everyone’s contributions.

3. Get Out Of The Mud

It’s tempting when you hit a meaty discussion point on your agenda to stay there.

But beware the risk of getting bogged down in “meeting mud” – dealing with time-consuming minutiae.

If the nitty-gritty details of the latest operating budget don’t involve everyone, you’re going to see a lot of yawns and smartphones pop up.

Avoid cutting off the discussion abruptly. But if you start to see no end in sight, interrupt and set up another meeting with just the people who need to deal with that level of minutiae.

4. Get at Least 1 Answer/Idea from Everyone

Answers and ideas don’t need to be elaborate, and can even be two or more employees agreeing on one thing. But try to get something from as many people as possible.

Like a teacher who gets the students who never speak up to raise their hands, when the silent ones know you’re watching, it encourages them to be more active (and less bored).

However, don’t go around the table like a duck-duck-goose game. That puts people on the spot and can make introverts even more uncomfortable.

5. Make It Visual

You don’t have to be a prop comic to make your points. But a little “show-and-tell” in meetings can keep everyone alert and interested.

Use visuals wisely. Don’t pack all of your agenda into a PowerPoint, for example. In fact, you shouldn’t — you’ll spend too much time focused on switching slides or fiddling with your computer – and you’ll lose their attention in the process.

6. Head Off Take-Overs At The Pass

The only thing worse than droning on at a sea of lackluster faces is having one of those faces take over the meeting.

We’ve all been there: We open the floor for questions and soon enough, one person takes the reins and argues their points to the exclusion of everyone else.

You want discussions, not monologues. If you get into the habit of letting one person grab the mic, the others will start resenting both you and the grabby attendee.

7. Start Some Arguments

Boredom in meetings sometimes disguises a desire to be agreeable. If your finance team never offers differing ideas, there’s a chance they think you only want consensus so the meeting goes as smoothly and quickly as possible.

So they stay silent – hoping someone else brings up their point before the meeting ends.

At different points, prompt the team to ask questions. Challenge them to disagree. A good debate or “argument” keeps everyone engaged. Plus, it may spur necessary changes or valuable ideas missed in the first place.

Just be sure your finance team keeps the debate limited to issues, not people.

8. Take Control of Tech

This is a questionable and controversial tip, so we buried it at the bottom. Some may feel it’s draconian to ban smartphones, tablets or laptops from meetings entirely. In fact, we often use them to grab data, the agenda or other information.

But sometimes you need to control their use to maintain the focus on what needs to be done or decided.

Make the call on a meeting-to-meeting basis. For example, if your meeting will run shorter (say between 30-45 minutes) and it’s decision-making time, suggest employees leave the tech at their desk.

On the other hand, if it is likely to be a long meeting (more than an hour), tell attendees to keep their devices handy, muted and ready to pull up information.

Finally, if you want to see all the things that can go wrong in a meeting, check out this 3-minute video that will make your worst finance meetings feel better!