Meetings are one of the biggest bug bears of management teams. Often they are run poorly and are therefore seen as a waste of time. Follow these ten points to makes sure your meetings stay on track:
- Know the real objectives of your meeting and keep the focus on achieving it.
- Write down a simple agenda and let all have it before the meet.
- Select a good meeting place and the right hour and day for those attending.
- Invite only the right people, i.e. those who can input ideas and knowledge or need to know.
- Put “Any Other Business” as the first item on the agenda and get people to put these in and assess when you can discuss them.
- Keep the meeting length flexible, e.g. Make it 50 mins instead of an hour. Always finish early if possible.
- Keep discussions on topic and summarise and agree what is said. Only note action points or agreements/disagreements.
- Always have a single person owning each action as it is more likely to get done, (it doesn’t mean that person does everything, just gives accountability).
- Issue a brief single page of actions immediately after the meeting.
- Always follow up actions at next meeting to hold people to account.
If you are interested in developing your leadership or creating more effective teams we would love to have a conversation.
