When the year’s coming to an end it’s time to prepare for next year’s meetings.
Because if you wait for January, you’ll be too late and miss out on some rare opportunities.
Here are 5 simple steps you should take to prepare for next year’s meetings while you still can.
1. Grab open calendar time
This tip is first because it’s the most important.
Most people don’t do what you’re doing. They wait until January to schedule meetings.
That means you have a limited window to grab open time for the people you need to meet with regularly.
But don’t wait.
If you start scheduling your meetings in January, you’ll be one of countless coworkers watching open calendars fill up and your chances to meet with critical partners disappear.
How this helps you prepare for next year’s meetings
You know how hard it is to find open time for your recurring meetings.
Regular meetings with your manager and your direct reports are essential for you and your team members.
Standing meetings for your project teams are also critical for project success.
And, don’t forget communications meetings for your organization.
So, before the year ends get these meetings scheduled for the entire year. Along with any other recurring meetings you can think of.
Don’t worry if you have to adjust the time, participants, and details later – meeting invitations are made to be revised!
The most important thing you need to do to prepare for next year’s meetings is to secure the time on people’s calendars now!
Here a few ideas of typical recurring meetings to help you think of your own you need to get scheduled.
- Team meetings with your staff
- Project working team meetings
- Town Hall or “all hands” meetings
- Quarterly steering committee meetings
- One-on-one meetings with your manager
- One-on-one meetings with your direct reports
- Program or project report out meetings with leadership
- Regular meetings with your mentee, mentor, and sponsor
- Intentional “check ins” with teammates who need your support
- Skip level meetings with those who report to your direct reports
2. Cancel and decline meetings
You lead effective, productive meetings – meetings people actually WANT to attend.
And, in Step 1 you added a bunch of outstanding meetings to your coworkers’ calendars.
But, no one wants too many meetings. Even excellent meetings!
You need time to do individual deep work and your teammates do too.
The end of the year provides the perfect opportunity to control what you can control.
You control the meetings you schedule and your RSVP to the meetings you’ve been invited to attend.
Exercise the power you have to prepare for next year’s meetings.
How this helps you prepare for next year’s meetings
Because it’s the end of the year, it’s much easier to skim your calendar and see all the meetings on your calendar.
Evaluate your meetings using two categories:
- Meetings you’ve scheduled
- Meetings you’ve been invited to attend
Meetings you’ve scheduled
This is your opportunity to be a hero to your coworkers!
Get unnecessary meetings off their schedules and declutter their calendars.
Here are some easy places to start.
- Meetings that fall on a holiday – Your team meeting is good, but no one is going to skip Thanksgiving dinner to be there.
- Meetings that can occur less often – You needed to meet weekly with the Safety Committee initially. Now monthly is more appropriate.
- Meetings that are no longer needed – A standing meeting that used to add value no longer does. Cancel it.
- Meetings beyond the original end date – You thought the project would take 5 months, but you’ll be done in 3. Change the meeting series end date.
- Meetings you’re allowing to linger – You need to get a different mentor. Decide when you’re going to make the change and cancel meetings with your current mentor after that date.
Meetings you’ve been invited to attend
You work hard to add value to every meeting you attend. And, you almost always do.
That’s why you get invited to SO MANY meetings.
But, you only have so much time in your week and you can’t attend every meeting you’re invited to.
As you prepare for next year’s meetings, do an honest evaluation.
Do you REALLY need to attend all the meetings you’ve accepted?
Is it possible your ego might be leading you astray?
Could you delegate and trust someone on your team to represent you and your department?
Meetings provide unique opportunities for your team members with less experience to build their confidence and their careers.
Forward a meeting or two and RSVP with a Decline providing an explanation to the meeting owner.
You’ll be building your team and freeing up time for the work only you can do.
3. Scrub your invitee lists
Step 2 put you in the mindset to evaluate your own meeting participation. Now apply that thinking to those you’ve invited to participate in the meetings you own.
The second P of the 3Ps for productive, effective meetings is People (click here or on the image below to get the free 3Ps worksheet).
Purpose – Why is this meeting being held?
People – Who needs to be in this meeting to accomplish the Purpose?
Preparation – What work needs to be done prior to the meeting to enable the People to accomplish the Purpose?
As you prepare for next year’s meetings, invest time considering who the right people are to participate in the meetings you’ve scheduled.
How this helps you prepare for next year’s meetings
You develop habits when inviting people to meetings.
For the same reasons others seem to invite you to nearly every meeting in your business, you may tend to invite the same highly engaged, deeply knowledgeable leaders to your meetings too.
You want to involve the seasoned veterans who know how to get things done.
But watch out for the trap of inviting only the typical voices to join your meetings.
While you’re taking time to prepare for next year’s meetings, take action to prepare next year’s team.
Invite new participants with fresh, diverse perspectives. Welcome in those with experience outside the company to learn from them.
And, as you’re scrubbing your meeting invitee list, check to ensure you’ve adjusted for organizational changes.
You don’t want to invite a former department leader who’s moved into a new role and miss including their successor.
I’ve learned that lesson the hard way!
You can avoid another goof I’ve made by taking Step 4.
4. Check meeting series end dates
Has this ever happened to you?
The new year has started and you’re looking forward to your weekly meeting with your project team.
You’ve met together every Thursday morning from 10:00 to 10:50 for months and you’re excited to keep the momentum going in January.
It’s Monday morning and you’re getting ready for your first Thursday morning meeting of the year.
Then you realize there is no Thursday morning meeting this week. Or any week of the new year!
Your recurring meeting series ended on the last Thursday of last year.
So you hit your knees praying no one has applied Step 1 and taken your spot on your team members’ calendars.
If they have, your routine is shot and your momentum is gone.
Don’t let this happen to you (like it’s happened to me)!
How this helps you prepare for next year’s meetings
Step 4 is a simple check you do as you prepare for next year’s meetings so you can avoid that panicky feeling and all the hassle of trying to find a different time your project team can meet.
Before you wrap up the year, review all your recurring meetings from last year – check and adjust the end date of every meeting series as appropriate.
If you need to keep meeting with a team or a person, make sure the series extends into the new year. If you don’t, set the series end date no later than December 31.
While you have your meeting invitations open, take Step 5.
5. Learn from last year’s meetings
The end of the year is a good time to look back and assess your meetings.
You’ve likely led and attended more meetings during the year than you can remember.
The number of lessons to be learned exceeds the numbers of meetings you’ve been in.
But those lessons will also slip away as vanishing, useless memories if you don’t take time to reflect and document how to improve.
Take time to do a simple Lessons Learned activity for your meetings from last year.
How this helps you prepare for next year’s meetings
This exercise is particularly useful for recurring meetings you’ll continue into the next year because you can directly apply what you learn to make improvements.
Pick a few meetings that are most important to your business.
Then ask yourself (and, ideally, those who participated in the meetings) questions like these.
10 Questions to Consider – Capturing Lessons Learned from Last Year’s Meetings
These 10 questions will help you and your team identify meaningful specifics about your meetings so you can improve in the new year.
- What can be done better next time?
- What aspects of the meeting went well?
- What aspects of the meeting did not go well?
- What did our internal customers say about this meeting?
- What did our external customers say about this meeting?
- What would we definitely do again for a meeting like this?
- What would we definitely NOT do again for a meeting like this?
- What helped us accomplish the meeting Purpose and objectives?
- What hindered us from accomplishing the meeting Purpose and objectives?
- What would we do differently if we could start this series of meetings over now?
Talking about lessons from a meeting last year is easier than actually learning the lessons.
Use this process to turn your observations into real improvements for next year’s meetings.
How to Ensure Lessons Learned Actually Improve Your Meetings
Organize the lessons you captured using the 10 questions above using these five categories.
- General
- What Went Well
- What Did Not Go well
- What Can Be Done Better Next Time
- What Our Customers (Internal and External) Said
Record the Contributor of each lesson if you’re working with a group so you can follow up for more information later if needed.
Then do this critical last step.
Write down a corresponding “Recommendations for Future Meetings” for every lesson.
This will force you and your team to focus your energy and attention on how to improve as you prepare for next year’s meetings.
Use this free Lessons Learned worksheet as a guide to complete this powerful exercise. (Click here or on the image.)
Use these 5 simple steps to prepare for next year’s meetings
It’s an opportunity that only comes once a year so make the most of it.
Use these 5 simple steps to prepare for next year’s meetings.
1. Grab open calendar time
2. Cancel and decline meetings
3. Scrub your invitee lists
4. Check meeting series end dates
5. Learn from last year’s meetings
Make them even more productive and effective than the meetings you led this year!
Here are 3 ways I can help you when you’re ready:
- Get more free resources you can use today (Click here to Start)
- Improve on your own with digital courses (Click here to Improve)
- Accelerate your progress with coaching (Click here to Accelerate)
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