In essence, effective meetings are meant to boost the team’s productivity and efficiency. Meetings help keep everyone on the same page, so they can work towards their goals by the end of a specific time. And when everyone is on the same page, it can give awareness to the team about what should be done and can help them accomplish even the most challenging tasks.
In reality, while meeting with the team seems like an obvious requirement, we find ourselves stuck at unproductive meetings with no sense of purpose. We even spend 18 hours a week at meetings on average, which might be one of the biggest time-wasters at work.
Yes, meetings have earned a bad reputation as the biggest time sucker. But that doesn’t mean you can’t turn it into something productive. Effective meetings can help a team move forward by helping attendees come to a decision and find ways to solve a problem. Apart from that, an effective meeting can inspire team collaboration which has a direct effect on every employee’s happiness.
So how do you run an effective and enjoyable meeting? These tips will surely help you.
1. Ask yourself whether the meeting is really a meeting.
Before you send out invitations to the attendees, it would be better if you determine if the meeting is actually a meeting. There are a lot of culprits out there pretending to be meeting-worthy, but in reality, you can just skip them to save your time.
For instance, if the meeting is just one person talking while the others are trying their best not to check their phones, then it’s likely a presentation than a meeting. To keep the attendees engaged, you can send them the slides in advance, so you can use the time together to do group discussions.
2. An effective meeting should have a clear objective.
A meeting will only be as productive as you want it to be if you have a clear objective from the very start. Perhaps, the meeting is all about generating new ideas, making decisions, gathering information, or all of the above. You have to be sure of what you’re trying to accomplish, or else, your meeting will just be one of those time-suckers.
Entrepreneur and influencer Neil Patel said it best. For him, he doesn’t want to have a meeting just for the sake of having a meeting. He believes in “no purpose, no meeting.”
Keep in mind that meetings are not social gatherings. You are gathered for a purpose, and that is to assess goal-oriented agendas. While there is nothing wrong with hanging out, you should not do it during a business meeting.
Keep the meeting goal-focused. Always remember that when you start with the goal, you’ll be able to finish with success.
3. Always be prepared.
Preparation is always the key to successful and effective meetings. Right before the meeting starts, you should provide all attendees with an agenda. Make sure that your agenda includes the following:
- topics to be covered
- short description of the objectives
- a list of participants
- who will lead each topic
- time and location
- any background information attendees need to know about the meeting
4. Make sure to start on time and end on time.
Let’s face it. Nobody likes waiting for the person in charge to show up. A lot of those in positions of power fall into the habit of being late for everything. Perhaps, it’s because they are busy. Or maybe, they like being reminded that their time is more important than everyone else’s in the room. Whatever the reason may be, being late is not a good habit since it only wastes everyone’s precious time.
Just as important it is to start the meeting on time, you should also end it on time. Having a definitive end time can help ensure that you can finish everything on your agenda. Additionally, it can help get everyone back to their work promptly.
5. Have a stand-up meeting.
A stand-up meeting is an effective way to keep everyone engaged, more collaborative, and less territorial. Also, standing on your feet during a meeting gives a strong sense of urgency which pushes the workers to give their best when suggesting ideas and voicing out their opinions.
Professor Bob Sutton and Jeff Pfeffer, the authors of Hard Facts, observed that they were able to cover everything more effectively when they have no place to sit. As a result, they were able to conclude that groups took 34% less time making decision during stand-up meetings.
While a stand-up meeting is not the most practical, you might want to consider it if you want to be more time-efficient.
6. End an effective meeting with an action plan.
Leave the last 10 minutes of the meeting to talk about the next steps. Feel free to discuss about the responsibilities and what the deadlines are. Your meeting will only end up useless if you don’t have an action plan at the end of the meeting.
Now that you learn how to conduct an effective meeting, make sure that you always keep it short, simple, and effective.
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