No More Pointless Meetings Summary

No More Pointless Meetings Book Review

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Facilitators choreograph workflow sessions to assure that the group is collaborative, productive and efficient. They are impartial and assume responsibility only for process – not content. They do not join in content discussion. Workflow management facilitators begin each session by asking the group to subscribe to three precepts:

1. “The facilitator accepts responsibility for meeting process.”


2. “The group accepts responsibility for meeting content.”


3. “The facilitator and the group commit to an outstanding workflow session outcome.”

The Four Workflow Sessions

The workflow management system sets up four sessions to deal with problematic issues:

1. “Issues management session” – Uses defined steps to identify and prioritize the main issues that managers and employee teams need to tackle.


2. “Innovation session” – Brainstorms dozens of innovative ways to think about problems, spot new directions or generate ideas.


3. “Problem-solving session” – Establishes an environment conducive to finding specific solutions.


4. “Ongoing planning” – Results in an “action plan” that participants enter in a “planning database” to enable continual strategizing that is based on current input, data and feedback.

The Issues Management Session

The issues management session forms the starting point for all gatherings. Managers together with their teams identify issues affecting their ability to conduct business, situations requiring resolution, trends and opportunities worth developing, or problems facing the team. An issue is “anything that occurs, that should have occurred or that you wish would occur that has relevance to your job or area of responsibility.” The workforce management system refers to urgent matters as “critical issues” to indicate that they demand immediate consideration.

Guidelines for running workflow sessions specify that the group should number around 10 to 12 people, though it can be as many as 20 or as few as two. Sessions may be as short as 20 minutes or as long as several hours. Insert a 10-minute break for every hour of meeting. Participants can sit at a conference table or in any formation the facilitator deems appropriate. Attendees should refrain from using mobile phones. Participants need pens and paper for issue management sessions, which also require three easels equipped with paper pads. These sessions work through a seven-step process:

1. “Laying the groundwork” – Begin each session by describing the difference between content and process. Explain that the facilitator will not participate in content discussions; gain participants’ agreement to respect this process. Use one of the large paper pads to record “information gaps,” unanswered questions that arise during the session. In today’s knowledge-driven economy, continually educating a team is imperative. Fill in all information gaps so participants stay current.


2. “Identify the purpose of the session” – Obtain everyone’s agreement regarding the reason for meeting.


3. “Surface all the issues” – Ask participants to write down as many issues as they can think of in five minutes, with no discussion. Do not limit the issues to their areas of responsibility. Record the issues on a large pad, listing two from each participant.


4. “Narrow the list to critical issues” – Ask each participant to identify his or her top five most critical issues from the list. Compile them on another sheet of large paper.


5. “List the top 10 critical issues” – Break the group into teams and give them five minutes to identify – as a group – their top 10 critical issues from the combined previous lists. Have a representative from each group present its list with a brief explanation for each choice. Rank each issue on the combined list in order of importance until the group winnows the list to the top 10 most critical issues.


6. “Resolve the issues or move them to another session” – Determine which critical issues the group can settle immediately. Resolving an issue requires identifying “next steps,” that is, assigning responsibility and creating a deadline. If the issue is too complex for immediate resolution, decide whether an issue requires a later innovation session or problem-solving session to find a solution. Schedule the appropriate follow-up sessions.


7. “Write the action plan” – Record the group’s conclusions, solutions and agreements in an action plan. This document includes four columns: “tasks/next steps, responsibility, due date and report.”

If you hold a two-person session follow a similar format. One person acts as facilitator while the other discusses content. The two switch roles about halfway through the meeting. You also can hold solo sessions to focus your thinking between workflow management sessions. On your own – acting as both facilitator and participant – formalize your thought process by following the steps for issues management, innovation and problem-solving sessions.

The Innovation Session

This session stimulates creativity to generate new solutions or products, update systems and processes, improve communication, originate strategy, or conceive promotion and marketing ideas. Begin each session with the first steps of every workflow session: explaining content versus process, going over the need to record any information gaps and gaining agreement from participants. Set up three additional easels for the breakout portions of the innovation and problem-solving sessions.

The innovation session unfolds in four stages. In this case, a session dedicated to generating new product ideas serves as an example:

1. “Ideation” – Ask each attendee to write as many product ideas as possible in three minutes. Don’t allow discussion. Record two ideas at a time from each contributor until you have several dozen on the easel. Repeat this exercise until the group is low on ideas.


2. “Building” – Pinpoint methods for making the ideas function and expand on ideas to turn them into concepts. Do not address why a suggestion may not work. Subdivide the group and ask each unit to pick 10 ideas from the list and develop them into viable concepts. After 15 minutes, reassemble the group and have each unit present its 10 concepts. Prohibit any negative commentary.


3. “Evaluation” – The participants whittle down the idea list to those with the most potential and feasibility. Assess each concept individually. The facilitator should prompt the group with numerous questions: Is the idea fully developed? What is its viability? Is it worth an investment of more time? Ask each participant to rank the remaining concepts until you have a top 10 or 20 list.


4. “Action plan” – End the session by creating a plan to move ahead.

“The Problem-Solving Session”

This session focuses the group’s problem-solving abilities on an issue by working through three stages of discussion, “entry points, leverage and questions.” First, to address problems, identify entry points that define the exact nature of the issue under discussion or the problem at hand. Second, discuss leverage to clarify the problem and find the access point to begin working out its resolution. Third, ask the right questions to provide a map toward the solution. Questions have a “leverage-ability quotient”; that is, well-targeted questions lead to accurate and timely solutions.

Like the innovation session, the first two steps in a problem-solving session are ideation and building. After the group isolates the specifics of the problem, take two more steps: In step three, “reframe the problem.” Ask participants to attack the problem in as many ways as they can in five minutes. Use the “what-if exercise” to offer solutions. For example, “What if communication within and between departments was streamlined?” or “What if managers and executives validated and empowered others?” This helps the group find the roots of the problem.

In step four, ask each group member to offer three solutions to display on an easel for everyone to see. If the group agrees that one of the solutions solves the problem, proceed to the action plan. If the group doesn't come to an agreement, in step five, ask participants, “What question do we need to ask ourselves at this time?” Record one response from each person and ask each participant to “write a better question.” Seeking better questions will help make the group more focused and solution-oriented. The facilitator should repeat this exercise as many times as he or she feels is productive. Once the group agrees on the best solution, proceed to the action plan.

“Ongoing Planning”

Annual strategic planning meetings are obsolete. To be relevant, the planning process needs to be timely, ongoing and fluid. Management must build its capacity to respond quickly to new information and to react promptly to changes in the marketplace. Three interconnected forces cultivate effective strategizing:

1. “Innovative collaboration practices” – Put the action plans that workflow management sessions generate into a universal planning database. Assign a planning coordinator to monitor the database.


2. “A robust planning database” – A comprehensive, continually updated planning database helps leaders evaluate productivity, assess companywide communication, analyze workflow proficiency, and identify challenges and opportunities.


3. “Personal workflow planners” – Managers use personal workflow planners as a tool for handling and prioritizing their responsibilities. This allows them to be proactive rather than reactive and replaces the traditional, inefficient to-do list.

Personal workflow planning enables managers – for every issue or task – to consider their goals, strategy, impediments and information gaps. The system lets managers analyze whether their action plans show “the investment of human and other capital in a manner that maximizes the viability” of their projects. When managers implement their solutions, they must answer the question: “Have I done my best and everything ethically possible to ensure success?”

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