Few things can be more frustrating than the seemingly endless amount of meetings today’s employees are required to attend. While most of these meetings are necessary, the time spent conducting them, and the value they add to the operation, can be greatly improved.
Below are a few simple techniques I utilize to ensure meetings I conduct are as productive and efficient as possible.
1) Take Idle Discussions Off-Line:
How many times have you been in a meeting when two people start exchanging ideas on an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the remaining 10 people in the group? When irrelevant conversations pop up (and they always do), it is the responsibility of the discussion leader to stop them. Simply say “let’s talk about that at a more appropriate time so we can stay on track here”.
2) Capture Ideas and Action Items:
If a good idea comes up during the course of a meeting, make sure it is written down! When I conduct a meeting, I always appoint a note taker to specifically capture any ideas or action items that pop up. I like to take it a step further and assign a person responsible for the action item, and give them a time frame to take action on it.
3) Always Have an Agenda:
Never conduct a meeting unless you have a specific goal in mind. Successful meetings have a clear agenda and each agenda topic should be considered a separate goal.
As an example, let’s say you want to discuss next year’s budget with your management team. If you were to write down “discuss next year’s budget” as an agenda item, there is really no way to measure whether or not the discussion was valuable.
On the other hand, if you clearly define your reason for discussing the budget, you reinforce the importance of the meeting and you will have a better gauge whether or not the discussion was valuable. A better defined budget agenda topic may read like this: “Ensure everyone is aware of the deadline to submit next year’s budget”.
4) Take Breaks, The Human Mind Can Only Stay Engaged for So Long:
In my experience, telling a group to take a 5 minute coffee break usually ends up costing 15 minutes of productivity by the time everyone gets back in their seats and focused on the discussion. This practice is fine for marathon meetings lasting more than an hour or two.
For shorter meetings, one of my coworkers started a tradition of showing a random 30 second video clip that was lighthearted and interesting when it seemed like the group was beginning to fade. People enjoy the brief distraction and the meeting usually continues with an improved sense of energy.
If you have any additional tips please share them in the comment form below!
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