How to effectively use a meeting!

Posted on July 07, 2010 by John Burkhardt, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

A lot of time is wasted and relationships formed during meetings. So what is the answer for a balanced productive meeting to achieve your objectives and to ensure all parties are happy with the result?

Some Simple Guidelines to Effective Meetings (Time Management):

Have an agenda – Issue it before the meeting, ask for input, stick to it. (Set the meeting context)

Start and finish on time – A little hard to have a meeting by yourself, but respect yourself and your time. If the other party/s is consistently late or doesn’t turn up, move on. Is this the type of relationship you want to have?

Keep great notes and circulate them to the attendees/invitees straight after the meeting. If someone has a problem with the content, let them address it straight away.

Don’t get sidetracked by “fluffy talk”, issues not on the agenda (put them on the next meetings agenda) and keep to time.

Make sure the meeting addresses what the next action step is, who is responsible for it, the outcome desired and when and where the feedback on the action is to go to. Leaving a meeting without setting responsible and accountable action steps is really a waste of time and energy for everyone. You call that a social outing!

Keep people honest. If they are going on an ego trip or talking BS, just tell them that and move on.

Set a time, date and agenda for the next meeting before leaving the first one.

I hope this helps, there are lots of templates out there for running a meeting, but keep it simple and stick to the guidelines.