What sweaty rugby players can teach you about acing winning meeting skills

The Rugby World Cup is edging to a close with the remaining 4 teams left in the competition. 

It’s thrilling stuff.

And apart from showing the million and one ways you can play about with a ball they’ve also had some fabulous lessons in how to communicate. 

Lessons that can show us how to interrupt effectively, demonstrate top leadership skills and manage meetings successfully. Here's how. (And if you hate meetings and want them to get better, like now, this article is just for you.)

In short, it’s down to rugby’s rules.

Rules in sport mean that things are exciting.

It also means that a pace is kept.

For example, no rugby player has ever taken the ball and gone to sit on the sideline to have a bit of a rest over a cuppa and a biscuit, while the remaining players stand around and wait until man with the ball brushes crumbs off his shirt and saunters back onto the pitch.

And yet this kind of thing happens all the time in companies.

“Where?” you might ask.

In meetings.

Picture the scene.

That person, you know, the one that will add at least an extra 20 minutes to the meeting, starts speaking.

And they become a runaway train.

How to make meetings better

They address a point that was made and then they go off on a wild tangent. That then leads to 7 other tangents and the air goes out of the room faster than a balloon bursting.

Ever been in a meeting like that?

I can sense that you’re nodding.

And chances are if the runaway train is a person with oodles of confidence or with clout then others also join in.

And before you know it, the meeting has eaten up a chunk of the day.

People are grumpy.

Agendas get sidelined.

And decisions don’t get made.

Enter one fabulous rugby rule that can help save the day and help you show others that you’re a good listener, can interrupt politely, and lead the meeting effectively.

It’s a rule that’s put in place to stop time wasting and a tactical way of stalling for time to take a breather and boost defences.

And it’s called the “use it or lose it” rule.

In rugby this means that when a team wins the ball at the back of a ruck they have 5 seconds to release it.

If they don’t, the opposing team gets awarded a scrum.

This is how to interrupt someone

What if this kind of thing could be used in a meeting by the person chairing it?

And the chair could interrupt someone if they’d become a runaway train?

This could be done by interrupting and saying “Thanks for that suggestion but I would like to remind us that we’re on X section of the agenda and not Y section” or “Thanks for that contribution. I do, however, think that we should move to subject Z as we have 20 minutes left and 3 agenda points still to cover.”

When you do this, you show active listening skills because you reflect back what the person has just said. you show manners because you thank the person for what they said, and you show leadership as you are providing direction and focus to everyone.

And if there’s no-one chairing the meeting, you could be the person to demonstrate leadership skills and move things forward in the right direction.

This helps everyone in that meeting: your colleagues, your stakeholders and not least yourself.

And it could lead to fewer meetings overall.

And more meetings that produce decisions.

Incidentally, the use it or lose it rule has changed.

It used to be that the referee would declare “Use it!” and then start counting down backwards from 5 to 1.

However, what used to happen was that the opposing team would also join in and count backwards, too.

Leading to a bit more noise and pressure for the referee to make a decision, and I dare say lots of different speeds of countdowns happening.

So, it’s maybe best that this group count down technique is not applied to meetings any time soon.

That could be a bit counter productive.

And lead to a bit of a *rammy, as they say in Scotland.

But what do you think?

What helps keep meetings focused?

How can meeting dynamics be managed in a productive way?

And which techniques have you come across that help keep people engaged?

*a rammy is a noisy disturbance.

If the meetings you’re going to are driving you mad and you want to improve them and improve your communication skills, contact me on mica@micaallan.com