Leadership and Marketing Update from H. LEINER & CO.
What’s your lucky number?
8! There should no more than 8 people at a meeting for it to be productive.
More than 8 people doesn’t allow everyone to participate, causes people to be reluctant to share their ideas, and allows for too many side conversations to distract from the main goals of the meeting.
Be thoughtful with your invite list and only invite the people who will be helpful additions at the meeting. Who has information to share? Who will be impacted by the decision? Who will be implementing the decision? Who will learn from participating?
Share with your team that you will be making changes to the meetings to limit the number to 8 people attending.
They might not accept that new idea so easily, so use these practices to help your team appreciate the new meeting strategy:
* Give people permission to ask to be included. If they have a legitimate reason to come to the meeting, let them join.
* Give people permission to decline the invitation to a meeting. Your employees are adults and can make the decision for themselves if they feel that it will not be productive for them to attend the meeting. Be clear that they are still accountable to check up on the information discussed at the meeting and to implement any decisions made though.
* Appoint someone at every meeting to take minutes for the people who aren’t there.
Measure your success after cutting down your number to 8 by asking for feedback on how people are reacting to this new change and whether they find it productive. Once you hit the lucky number for your organization, your meetings will be much smoother and more will get done efficiently.
(Harvard Business Review)
