Depending on your position in your workplace, you’re either regularly running meetings or will regularly run meetings in the future. Either way, your approach to meetings will determine whether they are a vital and productive part of your workday or a form of mild torture for everyone involved. As with most things in life, meetings tend to run more efficiently when you plan ahead.
To Meet or Not to Meet?
If you’re setting the meeting consider your objectives. Status updates may be more easily handled via email, which eliminates the need for a meeting entirely. Decision-making, brainstorming, and planning probably require direct, person-to-person interaction—lest you end up with an interminable email chain no one can follow after a few hours.
Simplify. Simplify.
A clear objective or objectives—whatever outcome you want from the meeting—makes for a clear agenda, the foundation of a productive meeting. Narrow your focus to the most essential outcomes that require group input at this meeting. Keep the objectives in mind as you write the agenda, so you can focus accordingly. Anything that isn’t related to the objective can be addressed in another meeting or another forum. Consider the time frame you have, and budget how many minutes you reasonably need to address each topic. If possible, keep the total time short, and once you have a schedule in mind, stick to it.
Don’t Go It Alone
Once you have an agenda set, consider who needs to be present at the meeting and who doesn’t. There’s no need to have an entire department present for a meeting that only addresses the interests and obligations of a few team members. Once you know who needs to be at the meeting, share the agenda with everyone in attendance to get their feedback. Getting input on the agenda may highlight topics that need more attention or time than initially allotted—or less. Maybe someone needs to be involved who isn’t initially included on the “guest list.” Feedback from the team makes them more invested in the meeting process and allows you to revise the objectives and agenda to meet their needs.
Participation
Inviting feedback on the agenda also sets the tone for inspiring active participation once the meeting begins. Team members feel more comfortable when they know their input is welcome and appreciated. If you have a few people dominating the commentary in the meeting, you can make a point of inviting feedback from less talkative members of the group—this approach also helps you keep the meeting’s trajectory on track. Another option is to make participation mandatory, which works well if the participants know in advance and have the agenda in place to help them prepare.
The Aftermath
After the meeting, invite feedback from the participants. They can tell you what worked and what didn’t, which can help you better prepare a plan for the next meeting.
Sources:
Business Insider. “9 expert tips to hold meetings that don’t waste people’s time.”
Forbes. “5 Simple Steps to More Efficient, Effective Meetings.”
Forbes. “Seven Steps to Running the Most Effective Meeting Possible.”
Mind Tools. “Running Effective Meetings.”
New York Times. “How to Run an Effective Meeting.”