Effective Meetings

There are good meetings and there are bad meetings. Bad meetings drone on forever, you never seem to get to the point, and you leave wondering why you were even present. Effective ones leave you energized and feeling that you’ve really accomplished something.

SO WHAT MAKES A MEETING EFFECTIVE? THIS REALLY BOILS DOWN TO 3 THINGS:

1. They achieve the meeting’s objective.
2. They take up a minimum amount of time.
3. They leave participants feeling that a sensible process has been followed.

If you structure your meeting planning, preparation, execution, and follow up around these three basic criteria, the result will be an effective meeting.

EFFECTIVE MEETINGS:

Setting the Meetings Objective:

An effective meeting serves a useful purpose. This means that in it, you achieve a desired outcome. For a meeting to meet this outcome, or objective, you have to be clear about what it is.

Using Time Wisely:

Time is a precious resource, and no one wants their time wasted. With the amount of time we all spend in meetings, you owe it to yourself and your team to streamline the meeting as much as possible. What’s more, time wasted in a meeting is time wasted for everybody attending.

Assuring Participants that a Logical Process has Been Followed:

Once you have an agenda prepared, you need to circulate it to the participants and get their feedback and input, running a meeting is not a dictatorial role: You have to be participative right from the start.