How to have effective meetings.

Nov 29, 2011

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:
  1. Know the real objectives of your meeting and keep the focus on achieving it.
  2. Write down a simple agenda and let all have it before the meet.
  3. Select a good meeting place and the right hour and day for those attending.
  4. Invite only the right people, i.e. those who can input ideas and knowledge or need to know.
  5. 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.
  6. Keep the meeting length flexible, e.g. Make it 50 mins instead of an hour. Always finish early if possible.
  7. Keep discussions on topic and summarise and agree what is said. Only note action points or agreements/disagreements.
  8. 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).
  9. Issue a brief single page of actions immediately after the meeting.
  10. Always follow up actions at next meeting to hold people to account.


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