How much time have you wasted sitting and waiting for a meeting to start? How often have you been frustrated at a meeting that seemed a waste of your valuable time, seemed disorganized, or for which people weren't prepared?

Several years ago I came up with a carrot-and-stick plan to get people into meetings on time, realizing that I was losing valuable staff time and seeing increased tension over a simple problem, that of meeting punctuality. After gaining responsibility for a new team, I brought cookies in to the first meeting. My wife makes very yummy cookies.

As the staff enjoyed the cookies and commented that we should do this for every meeting, I agreed, introducing my meeting rule as a twist:

• Those already seated and ready for the meeting, at the time the meeting is scheduled to start, get cookies.
• Those arriving 1-2 minutes after the meeting is scheduled to start, no cookie, but no other ill effects.
• The last person arriving more than 2 minutes late (or unexcused absences) has to bring home-made cookies for the next meeting. Not store-bought, not bakery cookies, home-made.

After about two meetings, people began arriving for meetings a couple of minutes early, meetings were very seldom forgotten, and generally the meeting started off with people in good spirits as they were enjoying a cookie or two.  Carrot and stick technique, with the carrot being cookies and the stick being the requirement to provide snacks next time, and suffering the sneers from peers. Fun, easy, effective as it brings in peer pressure in a positive way.

Here's some other practices to help meetings become effective.

1. Agenda. Tell folks well before the meeting what specific topics will be discussed, and set the expectation that they should be prepared for those discussions. If there is background reading material, point it out.  Prioritize the topics, most important first. While you're at it, make sure that the audience is right, based on the agenda items. If decision-makers or those impacted by decisions aren't invited, you may have to have an additional meeting or two to clean up the mess. If people having no relationship to some of the agenda topics have been invited, should the meeting be subdivided so as to not have them there and doodling, googling or reading e-mail?
2. Duration of meeting. Thinking about those attending, what's the likelihood that they have another meeting following this one, perhaps in a different building, or that they need to take care of some personal business between meetings? (Pretty high, in places where I've worked the past number of years. And I'm not going to rant here about the evil cleaning crew that schedule restroom cleaning closures from about 9:55 to 10:05 …)  Meetings do not have to be exact multiples of 30 minutes in duration. Try having 45 minute meetings -- bladders everywhere will appreciate your kind consideration.
3. Etiquette. Laptops open or closed rule? Cell phones on vibrate or silent? Every meeting participant should be focused on the meeting topics, not on instant messages flashing across the screen. Yes, I'm guilty of doodling and googling in those unorganized and dull meetings too, but I don't want to run such a meeting. My preference: laptops open if you're either taking notes or researching a quick question related to the meeting topic that will take less than a couple of minutes to answer. And of course IM's may be part of getting that research done, but a quick return to the meeting focus is still needed. Answer needs more than two minutes? Take an AI.
4. Action items. In the email announcing the meeting agenda, remind everyone of open action items due to be closed before or at the meeting, and encourage them to close their AI's before the meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, mention AI's listed in the agenda that have been closed prior to the meeting, then call out incomplete and overdue AI's. No point in having action items if you aren't going to hold the owners accountable.
5. Status updates. If my boss goes around the table at a staff meeting and gets a status update from N staff members, it is likely that N-1 people are now doodling and googling. Status updates can be sent out prior to the meeting by email, and staff should try to read those over before the meeting. If I read Joe's status and see how I may be able to help, or if I now have a question about that for Joe, he and I can get together and discuss the matter before or after the meeting. However if Fred mentioned an issue he's running into and needs some help, it's appropriate to share the problem with the rest of staff to see if anyone has some ideas.
6. Timekeeping. The agenda should list an approximate amount of time to be spent on each topic. Allow a bit of leeway on that time, but you'll need to make it up so as to end the meeting on time. Or if you just can't control that time factor, if you've done a good job of prioritizing the items on the agenda, the topics left undiscussed at the end of the meeting time will need to be deferred or dealt with in some other fashion.
7. Close. When you recognize that the meeting time is just about up, sum up the agreements and accomplishments of the meeting, briefly run through the list of new AI's ensuring that their owner has taken note of them, and thank everyone for attending. If you've done this right, no one is banging on the meeting room door to evict you.

Start showing your best leadership skills by evaluating how you hold meetings and how to make them most effective for those forced to attend, through a combination of self-evaluation and informal polls. Your staff will quietly thank you.

Pass the cookies!