Meetings have a special place in my heart. They are often necessary to communicate, to work as a team, share ideas and collaborate. However, they are often a waste of time. How can both of these things be true? Because most meetings are ineffective and unproductive.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Your meetings can be brief, focused and effective. They can be highly productive and a great use of time. In order to accomplish this transformation, you need to focus on improving three distinct parts of your meeting: preparation, meeting management, and follow-up. You can also use my free meeting agenda template.
Preparation: The simplest thing you can do is create an agenda. This should be mandatory. Create a simple document that describes the purpose of the meeting, clearly states the date, time, place and invitees, as well as the topics on the agenda. If there are action items that need to be reviewed, include those on the agenda. As you create this agenda, use it to focus your meeting. Can everyone invited reasonably make the meeting? Is a conference call number for those who need it? Are there meeting materials (documents, presentations, etc.) that everyone will need? Will they be emailed in advance, printed, projected? Do you have too many people attending? Are you missing someone who should be there? Asking these questions as you craft your agenda will help you refine the purpose and focus of the meeting. Take a minimalist standpoint and eliminate the non-essential.
Meeting management: Probably the biggest problem in meetings is the active management of th meeting. The meeting should be focused on the agenda and the meeting facilitator should actively run the meeting. If the meeting gets off topic: table the topic, record an action item to revisit the topic later or through a more appropriate channel and get back to the agenda. Remind the particpants that this meeting has a specific goals and it is your committment to respect the time and attention of the meeting particpants by sticking to the agenda and working as quickly as possible to accomplish the goals of the meeting. Effective meeting management involves:
- Staying on topic
- Taking good notes
- Recording action items for follow-up
- Giving people time to speak
- Reviewing meeting results to ensure understanding and record accuracy
Meeting follow-up: Most meetings have insufficient follow-up after the meeting. Frankly, if the meeting was important, documenting the results of the meeting is also important. Even more so if you consider the needs of invitees who could not attend the meeting or your need to reference the meeting in the future. Good follow-up includes meeting minutes: a recap of the agenda, notes on each agenda topic, and a record of new action items, tabled discussions, decisions or other results. These mintues should be sent to all invitees and participants within 24 hours of the meeting. If you are dilligent about recording notes during the meeting and reviewing the results to ensure accuracy, you can potentially record the meeting minutes during the meeting and email them immediately at the conclusion of the meeting. In addition to the meeting minutes, within 24 hours you need to complete any actions you took as the meeting facilitator, which might include assigning action items, sending related communications, scheduling follow-up meetings or gathering and disseminating other information.
Improving your meeting preparation and meeting follow-up will involve a committment of more time on your part as the meeting facilitator. But consider this added effort as the most efficient way to improve the value achieved as a result of the meeting. Meeting preparation makes the meeting more goal oriented. Better in-meeting management improves focus and effectiveness. Good follow-up ensures that the outcomes of the meeting are meaningful. I have a template available for free that can be used as an agenda as well as for capturing meeting minutes. Feel free to modify and share it to suit your needs: http://www.planquility.com/resources/
