Now that we are settled into 2021, one thing we know is certain, we all have too many meetings and what’s worse, many of our meetings are unproductive and even unnecessary.
Whether your meeting is on-line or in person, these are 3 essentials that will make your meetings more effective.
- Purpose – Why are you holding the meeting? Inform participants in advance why the meeting is being held – are you Brainstorming solutions? Prioritizing projects? Deciding on a path forward? Clarifying the purpose will help participants prepare and it sets the stage for a productive discussion.
- Agenda – Every meeting needs an agenda, even recurring, weekly check ins. Good agendas list the topic, the speaker/ lead, the timing for each topic, and any discussion questions along with attachments or links to attachments if needed. In essence, each agenda item should clearly align with the purpose of your meeting – if it doesn’t, consider how other topics can be done off-line.
- Outcomes – To conclude the meeting, recap the outcomes/decisions at the end of the meeting. This helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page. If possible, it’s useful to both state and show the outcomes. To “show” the outcomes, if you are using a video conference platform, you can use the chat, a whiteboard or screen share or word document that summarizes the main outcomes.
These suggestions won’t take a lot time to incorporate into your meeting planning, but will make a big difference. Here’s to better meetings…and maybe a bit less screen time!
