Want to get feedback from the participants of the operational meetings - How can I come up with a good questionnaire?

I want to get feedback from the participants of the operational meetings that we hold on a weekly basis because I have found them boring to the participants. Though looking for a way of making them more engaging, I want to use a questionnaire. How can I come up with a good questionnaire and what should it look like?

Regards

Dear Kyamagelo-Cossy, Are the meetings conducted online or physically? Are the attendees aware of why the meetings are conducted?

For the routine meetings that take place every week or month, these problems do occur. However, circulate the agenda one day in advance. Secondly, encourage the involvement of each participant.

Thirdly, emphasize that the meetings are educative too. The issues discussed in the meeting give insight to the attendees on what is happening in the organization in general and in their department in particular. When a person who chairs the meeting takes a decision, it is a learning experience for the attendees on how decisions are made. This will help them in the future when they become seniors.

Lastly, feedback from the attendees on improving the quality of the meeting is important. However, we, the members of this forum, are outsiders. We know nothing about your organization or about the meetings. Therefore, you may design the feedback form on your own, and some seniors like me may give suggestions for improvement.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Before you even think about talking to the participants, you need to examine the meeting itself.

The Nature of Meetings

By definition, almost all meetings are boring. If we were to do a quick poll of CiteHR members, we would find the overwhelming majority would say meetings are boring, unnecessary most of the time, time-wasting, and achieve nothing.

Questions to Consider

So your starting point is to answer questions such as:
- Why do we have this meeting?
- Why is it necessary to have this meeting?
- Can we impart information to participants in a different way?
- Is someone demanding this meeting just to make themselves important?
- Does this meeting achieve anything—does it move the company forward, and does it have identifiable and measurable outcomes?
- Are there minutes kept with action points, and are those actions followed up to ensure completion?
- Does this meeting just waste everybody's valuable time, and nothing is achieved?
- How many participants are fiddling with their phones and not taking any notice of what is being said?
- How many participants find reasons, spurious or otherwise, not to attend the meeting?

Suggestions for Improvement

My suggestion is that for your meeting next week:
- You have a very tight agenda limited only to important matters that need discussion.
- You have a time limit and you do not go one minute over—respect other people's time.
- You have a chairperson who can control the meeting and keep it on track.
- All unimportant matters and information-only items are circulated in an email.

Does This Work?

Yes, it does. I did it continuously during my working career. I hate meetings with a passion and I freely admit that. They waste time, sap people's energy, cause resentment, and for the most part achieve nothing. And that is not to mention the useless, time-wasting PowerPoint presentations with boring people droning on and on just reading the words on their slides.

When you have fixed all those problems, then talk to your staff to refine the process.