8 Ways To Get More From Meetings
Meetings provide great opportunities - to avoid doing any proper work, to make sarcastic remarks about the company, to gossip about colleagues.
Well, this is the popular view anyway. A meeting is where people gather together in stuffy, crowded rooms and lose the will to live.
But they don't have to be this way.
Here are a few tips for people who organise meetings to help make them more productive and enjoyable. If you don't organise meetings yourself, pass them on to the person who does or mention a couple of the points as helpful suggestions.
1. Don't have a meeting.
Why are you having a meeting in the first place? Is there a purpose? Does this have to be done through a meeting?
Many meetings are just used to pass on information, which could just as easily be done via email or memo.
Or they're held because, " It's Monday and we always have a staff meeting on Monday. " If there's nothing to discuss, don't have a meeting. Don't make something up just because there's a meeting booked.
2. Set objectives.
If you're going to have a meeting, what's it for? What outcomes do you want? Do you want decisions, actions, feedback about something? What do you want to have achieved by the end of it?
If you don't know the answer, don't have the meeting.
Once you do know the answer, make sure everyone else knows as well.
3. Provide an agenda.
Yes, we all know you should have an agenda but how often does everyone see one before the meeting? How much input do other people have in determining the agenda?
Don't overestimate how much you can cover in the meeting. Most agendas are like " to do " lists, they have far too much in them because no - one has prioritised what needs to be done. People add their own pet topics just to give them something to say.
Keep it short and make sure every item has a purpose.
4. Assign preparation.
If you want people to think about something before the meeting, let them know. Give them a couple of questions to consider to help them focus on the key topics. This is much better than springing something on people at the meetings and then asking for ideas.
Also, ask specific people to introduce topics or to prepare information or do some research. This helps everyone to feel involved and to be clearer about the purpose of the meeting.
5. Set times for each topic - and stick to them.
Keep the meeting on track by allocating time for each item and closing the discussion when the time is up. Along with having a realistic number of items to start with, this will make sure that everything gets discussed.
How many meetings have you been to where too much time is spent on the first few items and others are missed out or rushed through at the end?
6. Start and end on time.
Don't wait around for people who are late. Some people do this on purpose because they assume you'll wait for them or because, " meetings always start late ".
And don't let the meeting drag on past the time it was meant to finish. Nothing useful will get done and everyone will hate you.
7. Capture action points.
Make sure, after every topic has been discussed, that everyone is clear what is to be done and who is going to do it.
Recap these at the end and circulate a summary after the meeting.
If there are no action points - what was the purpose of the meeting?
8. Allow time for fun!
Although I've stressed the importance of having a purpose, sticking to times and agreeing actions, this doesn't mean meetings always have to be deadly serious.
In fact, one purpose of having a meeting could be to raise morale, to encourage creativity, to have fun.
Allow time, or even have specific meetings, where people can relax, be creative, discuss freely. Use some different methods rather than just discussing things round the table. Let people draw on flipcharts, work together, use pictures or materials, brainstorm.
Use these approaches and you can make meetings much more productive and enjoyable, maybe even things that people look forward to rather than dread.
View available Training Courses from Train of Thought