by John J. Walters

Ever heard of the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle?  If you have: good, that’ll save me some time.  If you haven’t: go read up on it.  It will kinda-sorta blow your mind.

I have heard all sorts of different interpretations for the 80-20 rule in my life.  The first one I heard was that 20% of the workers at a company do 80% of the work, and since then I have felt this to be painfully true at each and every one of my jobs.  I have also heard two more interpretations that make some sense.

First, that 80% of a product’s value is realized with the first 20% of effort.  I have found this to be especially true when I write.  I get nearly everything out during the first go-around; then I can spend as much time as I want editing.  But the final product is never that much better than the original draft.

Second, that 80% of everything is crap.  This one is catchier, but I am still a little wary of it.  It may be true and it may not be — but I think a more palatable version of the rule would be that 80% of everything is non-memorable.  20% is generally enough to get the basic idea from something, and that’s usually all people will bother with.

So what does this have to do with meetings?  Just that: people are usually going to walk out of the conference room having only heard about 20% of what you said.  It’s sad but true.  From this, we can learn three very valuable lessons.

Lesson 1: Meetings can be shorter. If people are only going to remember 20% of what is discussed then you might as well not keep them hostage for quite as long as usual.  Who set the standard meeting length at 1 hour?  Seems arbitrary to me.  Perhaps a good motivator for getting people to pay better attention would be to say that the meeting will end as soon as it seems like everyone gets the gist of things.

Lesson 2: You must be careful what you emphasize. Most people will only remember 20% of what you say, but not everyone will remember the same 20%.  This is why you need to make it clear which bits are the important ones and which ones are the details.  Use the three-step salesperson/teacher method:  Tell them what you’re going to tell them.  Tell them.  Then tell them what you told them.

Lesson 3: The follow-up is crucial. Ok, so people are walking out of your meeting with only the basic idea of what’s going on in their heads.  Disaster, right?  Not really — the basic memories of the meeting are still there.  They just need to be nudged a bit.  Best way to do this is by sending out notes as a follow-up right away so that people will have them as a reference.  This way the other 80% won’t simply get lost.

I’m sure you can find other applications for the Pareto Principle in your life and work.  Just don’t take things too far.  Remember, it may be true that you get 80% of a project’s value from the first 20% of work, but the difference between success and failure in the business world is often a margin much slimmer than 20%.  It’s important to spend that time polishing.

by John J. Walters

What was the worst meeting you ever attended?  For most people, this is a difficult question, because the competition is fierce.  I went searching for common meeting complaints this morning, and I found a few decent articles written by people complaining about various behaviors that should be avoided at all costs.

Of course, everyone will have their pet peeves and there will always be professional cynics.  You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but with a little preparation you can organize a decent meeting that won’t bore everyone, especially if you are careful only to schedule one only when it really needs to take place and when you invite only the people who will have relevant input.

But sometimes a decent meeting can turn into a train wreck despite the best preparation.  How?  We’re all familiar with “that guy” who commits a meeting faux pas that derails everything, so I figured I’d post a couple links to help you avoid turning into him by accident.

First, here’s a very short list of a few things to avoid at all costs.  It says it’s a “top five” list but only lists four things.  Oh well.

CNN also has a pretty decent piece with ten things that will either make you look bad during a meeting or will distract everyone else from the task at hand.  It boils down to being prepared, acting professional, and staying on topic.  Good advice in general, really.

Finally, I stumbled across an interesting role-playing activity to help meeting participants and team members to analyze their own behaviors and get them thinking about how to improve their interactions.  Activities like these can easily fall into the category of “time wasters” if they’re poorly executed, but can just as easily be valuable introductions and ice-breakers for both new and established teams.

The important thing to remember is that most people don’t want to be there, just like you.  So if you’ve been roped into a meeting that you don’t want to attend, try not to make it worse for everyone else with poor behavior.  And, as always, doing your homework beforehand and coming ready to be productive is the key to doing your part for an effective meeting.  You might not be able to make things perfect, but at least you can avoid making things worse quite easily.

by John J. Walters

Right from the get-go, I have to admit that I just made up “International Meetings Day.”  But it does seem to be true.  Yesterday was the first “official” day back at the office from the summer, a time when a lot of companies put things on hold so that people can enjoy their vacations.  And what better way to celebrate a return to productivity than a day (or even a short week) filled with unproductive meetings!

I have two theories about this “IMD” phenomenon. Theory number one goes that this week is also often times the first week back at school.  In college, this first week was known as “syllabus” week by most students, as our classes were little more than meetings with the professor to discuss the syllabus that we were all more than capable of reading ourselves.

But why read on our own when we knew the teacher was going to waste the first seminar droning on about his classroom policies and course pacing?  Everyone just got used to printing their syllabi off at the last second right before class and then waltzing in to sit, listen, be bored, and check out their new classmates.  After 4 years of that, maybe we just got in the habit of making the days after Labor Day “meeting days” — that is, time to sit, listen, be bored, and check out our new co-workers.

Of course, this situation could easily be avoided (and sometimes was, by the smarter professors) by a little preparation on the part of the teacher (the meeting creator) and the students (the meeting attendees).  Design the syllabus to be something worth the student’s time (like an assignment that would factor into their grade) and they will read it in advance, thus saving the first seminar for real productivity.  Just like with meetings — a little preparation goes a long way.

My other theory on IMD is that people are using it as one last chance to enjoy the summer’s lack of productivity.  They know they have to get back to work in earnest soon, but why not give themselves a day or so just to sit on their asses and listen to people talk about stuff beforehand?  It’s procrastination, pure and simple.

If that’s the case, and if you’re one of the people who actually has to schedule a productive meeting during this time, my advice to you is to be very clear what you expect each and every attendee to bring with them to the meeting in advance.  This way they are warned that this isn’t just a grown-up version of syllabus week, where they waddle in wearing their Hawaiian shirts and sunglass tans and listen to the boss talk about what they’re going to do over the next few months.  They need to know that they are expected to participate.

“Preparation!” is becoming my rallying cry on this website, but that doesn’t make it less important.  Every office employee is expecting to waste this time in pointless meetings just as they have in the past, and it’s your job as a meeting creator to do something about this.  So do your prep work and figure out what your meeting is all about; why it needs to be called.  If you can’t do that now then postpone it.