Most of us attend meetings, many of us feel that it could have just been an email. However, meetings are an essential part of the workflow in a highly productive, effective team.
Survey results published by Harvard Business Review asked 182 senior managers across various industries what their stance was on meetings.
In total, 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work. 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking. 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.
In conclusion, the study suggested that only 50% of time spent in meetings is considered effective and useful.
Unsplash / Marvin Meyer
It’s true – time is money in business, but effective meetings can produce effective results. How do you avoid the misuse of people’s time and energy? By planning efficiently, we can all learn how to design, run and participate in meetings that are productive and helpful.
As per Forbes, there are two main elements that go into creating an effective meeting: the way the meeting is designed, and how engagement in encouraged within the group. Here are four quick tips for running a highly effective meeting:
1. Define your ‘why’
Your very first task of running an effective meeting is to address the most obvious point for calling it in the first place. Why are we all here?
Before tackling discussion points, identify the purpose for meeting. Ask yourself why you are rallying the team for a sit-down, what exactly needs to be accomplished, and what are the goals and objectives of this meeting.
2. Carve out your agenda
Once you’ve got your ‘why’, you’ll need to create an agenda. The general flow of the meeting will follow your agenda, which should be organised as discussion points that you’ll need to get through to accomplish the purpose of your meeting.
It may be useful to ask yourself which discussion points need to take place in achieve the purpose of the meeting. You’ll need to think about the order in which of these points are discussed, as well as what the goal of each is, and plan your method of conducting each conversation.
Don’t forget to include a timeline for the meeting overall, as well as for each point in your agenda. This will help in keeping your meetings as short, sweet and efficient as possible.
Unsplash / Patrick Perkins
3. Don’t wait for others to chime in
Group engagement is an important aspect of meetings. The person who runs the meeting – in this case, you – needs to get creative about how to spark engagement and conversation.
Once you’ve introduced a talking point, make room to hear from everyone. After each bullet in your agenda, go around the group, one by one, and encourage discussion. Leaving a topic open to discussion without encouraging team members to weigh in individually could lead to minimal input.
4. Do they need to be in the meeting?
Many organisations make the mistake of inviting everyone to a meeting. Sometimes, everyone except for the person who needs to be in attendance. Reflecting on the purpose of your meeting, ask yourself who needs to be in the room to accomplish the purpose of the meeting. Whose input, support and know-how is needed in the meeting? Stick to only inviting them.
With these tips, your meetings should run effectively without leeching time and energy from everyone invited.
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Feature Image: Unsplash / Chris Montgomery
