Question: I run a medium-sized business and I have found that many of our team members either skip or essentially sleep through many of our meetings, which can make them feel like a waste of time. Do you have any ideas on how to improve our meetings?

A: We have all sat through meetings that were a waste of time because they accomplish little. If your meetings have become routine or your team looks to you as the source of substance for the agenda, then it’s time to take a hard look at how you can improve meeting engagement. 

  • Encourage healthy conflict. As a licensed Entrepreneurial Operating System Implementer (EOS), I have worked with many leadership teams helping them rejuvenate their meetings taking them from mediocre to great meetings where everyone on the team is engaged and involved. I tell my clients that one of the main purposes of meetings is to keep the circles connected and solve problems. Every company has issues – the great ones have learned to turn their meetings into problem solving opportunities. 

It is critical that everyone in the meeting feel safe to express their point of view and challenge the status quo. The best teams and the best companies in the world thrive because of healthy conflict, not smooth sailing. Productive conflict is not mean-spirited and never involves personal attacks. Healthy conflict is founded in passionate debate aimed at finding the “right” answer or lively conversations in search of the best possible path forward for the good of the organization. The goal of healthy conflict is to identify ideas, opportunities, and points of friction, as well as making team processes or business better.

  • Ask better questions. If your meetings are becoming predictable, boring and/or unproductive, ask yourself some questions first, and then bring that inquisitive spirit with you into the meetings you lead. Start with jotting down some notes on what is causing friction lately? What’s slowing down progress? What could we do more effectively? What, or who, are we avoiding? How could we improve our processes? What skills and competencies are we lacking on our team? What needs are underserved in both our current markets, and our aspirational ones? Where could I, personally, improve the most? Are there professional development opportunities that might help me, or my fellow team members?

Create a set agenda and do not allow the team to go off on tangents.  The meeting should start on time and end on time.  The vast portion of the meeting should be spent on solving problems so ask your team to come with issues and opportunities to discuss. Prioritize the topics you want to discuss and then decide on a course of action to solve the problem.  Dig deep to identify the real issue (sometimes what seems like an issue is only a symptom) then ask everyone on the team to discuss their perspective. It is important for your team to feel safe in sharing their point of view. I tell my clients to leave “titles” at the door, so everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts.  Once the discussion has occurred move into problem solving mode. Problem solving takes practice and diligence. The most important thing is to decide on a course of action. Do not leave the meeting without some type of solution or next step to the issue you discussed.  

  • Make space for engagement. In the meeting, be sure to ask for engagement. Don’t assume the people in the room visualize the meeting going the same way you do. Set your expectations ahead of time to ensure everyone is prepared and on board.  If you are doing all the talking others are not engaged. Silence is not acceptance so if people are not speaking up encourage them to do so by asking for their point of view. 
  • Acknowledge contributions. Finally, to keep engagement high both during the meeting and in the future, remember to acknowledge contributions, and follow-up on them. Speaking up is hard for some people. Reward them when they do, and ensure they know their feedback is valuable by taking it into consideration and following back up with them. 
  • Avoid boring. There is no reason to suffer through a boring meeting. You do not want to sit through them, so do not ask your colleagues to either. Make meetings an energizer in everyone’s day, rather than a momentum killer.

If you need further assistance on increasing meeting engagement in your workplace, seek out someone with expertise to assist facilitate the meetings until you and your team can convert your meetings to great problem-solving opportunities. with a management specialist. 

Tom Cooney and Crystal Faulkner are partners with MCM CPAs & Advisors, a CPA and advisory firm offering expert guidance and beyond the bottom line thinking for today’s public and private businesses large and small, not-for-profits, governmental entities and individuals. Crystal is licensed as an EOS Implementer. For additional information, call 513-768-6796 or visit us online at You can listen to Tom and Crystal daily on WMKV and WLHS on "BusinessWise," a morning and afternoon radio show that profiles highly successful people, companies, organizations and issues throughout our region. 

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