‘Pause and revisit’: Cabinet Secretary’s note to bureaucrats on conducting meetings

Somanathan also asked the Secretaries to circulate the guide on holding effective meetings, drawn up by the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), to all civil servants. He said the Cabinet Secretariat, along with the NCGG, would circulate similar guides on various topics. The conduct of meetings was chosen as the first topic as meetings take up a lot of time in an officer’s day, he wrote.

“Many officers have told me that many of our meetings tend to start late, be overstretched and directionless, and often lead to no tangible ‘takeaways’,” he wrote.

The Cabinet Secretary wrote that several middle-ranking officers had told him that they were happy with the subject-matter training being imparted to them, but needed more practical advice on “so-called routine matters”. “’Routine’, though it may seem boring, is often extremely important and, thus, during our long careers in the civil service, we may need to pause and revisit it,” he wrote.

He said it would be useful for civil servants to ask themselves if they were improving each year or simply going down the beaten path. “If we are simply following a beaten track, then towards the end of our career, we may be faced with the question of whether our experience was ’30 years’ experience’ or ‘one year’s experience repeated 30 times’,” he wrote.

He said civil servants “must take care of the small things”, which could range from how meetings are conducted, to time management, to communication with peers, superiors or subordinates.

“These things may seem trivial, but from my experience and observation, I would argue that they are very important. They often distinguish an outstanding officer from a mediocre one, even more than domain knowledge,” he wrote.

The 10-page guide on holding meetings starts with the basics, including being clear about why a meeting is being called, who is to be called and the timing. It advises that if the purpose can be achieved through email, phone or text messages, then a meeting should be avoided.

If certain specific opinions, including on sensitive issues, are needed, then “calling a meeting may not be helpful as people may suffer from ‘herd mentality’ and they may not come out with their inspiring ideas in an open meeting because no one wants to upset the status quo. In such cases, a one-to-one interaction may be more fruitful,” it says.

It adds that important meetings should not be held a day before or after a holiday as participants may be on leave. It also advises that long meetings, that extend to over an hour, should be avoided.

A two-way flow of communication should be maintained during a meeting, it says. “Someone may be encouraged to play the devil’s advocate so that the participants are aware that you are open to different ideas,” it says.

It also emphasises the importance of preparing minutes of meetings, giving standardised formats for different kinds of meetings, including a decision or problem-solving meeting, a selection meeting and an Expenditure Finance Committee meeting.

In the case of meetings where all participants are subordinates of the person calling the meeting, the guide says: “Subordinates are often reluctant to speak frankly for fear of contradicting the boss. However, you and your organisation will benefit from hearing the contradictory views to help you take a better decision and anticipate problems.”

For meetings intended for problem-solving, it says the hierarchical structure needs to be side-stepped so that all staff can speak freely. For meetings with non-government participants, it says the officer should “take extra care to be courteous to the participants”.

The guide ends with tips on what is a “good meeting and a bad meeting” and provides sample meeting notice, agenda and minutes.