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5 Ways to Better Business Meetings

Many of us are constantly attending meetings. So many of these meetings go over time or are simply a waste of time. Here are five simple but key recommendations to having more productive meetings.

Objectives: An objective is about defining what needs to be achieved. The objectives of the meeting must be stated in the meeting invitation and at the beginning of the meeting. The means of managing the meeting in order to meet the objectives is through the agenda which details topics and timings of the meeting (the agenda is basically a high-level plan of how the objectives will be met). The Chairman must be absolutely clear as to the objectives of the meeting.

Timings: When sending the meeting invitation an agenda must be included. The agenda should consist of a list of topics to be discussed with the person responsible for leading the discussion as well as the time available for each topic. Timings must be enforced by the chairman to ensure that all agenda topics are covered in the available meeting time. Meetings must start at the advertised time even if some attendees are not present (people will soon learn not to be late for your meetings when they realize that they are missing out on information critical for them to perform their roles) and must not end later than the scheduled end time.

Actions: Meetings take various forms however it is usual that the meeting attendees will be required to do something after the meeting in order to meet the meeting objectives. These activities are called actions. Actions are agreed in the meeting and are assigned to an individual with a date and time to complete the Action.

Actions may also be assigned to non-attendees of the meeting however the task of communicating the actions required from the non-attendee must be assigned as an action to a meeting attendee.

Communication: Only invite the people who are able to meet the meeting objectives and check that the required attendees are available in their calendar. It is equally important to use the Required or Optional attendee options in Outlook (or similar if you use other meeting scheduling software). Meetings must be scheduled well in advance and the objectives and agenda included in the meeting invite. Soon after the meeting, Minutes must be emailed to all attendees and other necessary people. The minutes must include the Actions including who is responsible for each Action and a deadline for completion. The chairman must communicate periodically as to the status of the actions and if the meeting objectives have been achieved.

Leadership and Management: Leading and managing meetings (Chairing meetings) takes assertiveness and skill. It is not always simple to stop a dominant attendee when they go off topic. It is necessary however for the meeting chairman to control the meeting and adhere to the agenda timings; if the timings are not adhered to then, ultimately, the objectives will be threatened due to insufficient meeting time being available for some agenda items.

So much time is wasted through ineffective meeting practices. Meeting best practice such as above will make you and your organization far more effective.