subject: Effective Meetings - 8 Major Steps To Good Results [print this page] Who needs a meeting? Who needs a meeting?
Meetings - you either love them or dislike them. They seem an essential evil to many. Whether board meetings or any other company meetings. If you ask if they are necessary the reply is likely to be, 'certainly'. Are they helpful - most might say, 'No'. This point of view would seem to signify that it's not actually the objective but the substance of effective meetings and exactly how they are handled which tends to grate on people.
Do you know someone that complains concerning meetings? Finds them a total waste of time? Possibly, if it is your task to prepare and conduct a meeting you might even meet this with a level of trepidation and an increase in stress.
Just what is your meeting policy?
It is unusual for a meeting to have no agenda whatsoever. The initial entry on the agenda, especially the very first in a sequence of meetings, should be a summary of your meeting strategy. This will establish what you hope to achieve from the meeting, how you prefer to manage it and your expectations of those at the meeting. Therefore, in summary you might prefer to include:
What is the reason:
What is the purpose of the meeting? Clarity here will spare a lot of agony when dealing with the meeting.
How regular do you need meetings?
Agree how often you wish to hold a string of meetings and get suggestions from people present. Bear in mind, meetings use up time.
Meeting end product?
Define what you expect to be the end results from the meeting. For example, what will be the format of the minutes of meetings and any kind of actions that they may incorporate? This is an excellent opportunity to mention to people that they will be accountable for actions that they acquire. If these are not finished in a timely way it could affect other people at the meeting.
The chairperson:
Who will it be and how will that individual conduct the meeting? This may routinely be a Project Manager, but, others will hold effective meetings outside conventional projects.
Who will be the secretary?:
Who will it be? Don't request volunteers at the meeting. People don't enjoy being engineered into a task they may not like and may not actually be a good match for it. They might also be experienced at saying, 'no'. Invite an individual to become the secretary before the meeting and explain the duties.
Circulation of minutes of the meeting:
This is really crucial. It's usually a great plan for the secretary to distribute a copy of the draft minutes to those involved and suggest feedback on factual content and the ownership of actions. Provide a final date for the suggestions and a final date to complete and distribute the minutes and stick to it.
Management and Control
The primary reason for holding a meeting will be for the management of some element of a task or series of activities. They become a platform for raising issues, determining project progression versus any plans and the completion of certain actions. It's a chance for communication across departments that might not usually be available.
Ideally, some form of decision making will emerge. There will have been achievements and this gives the chairperson an opportunity to applaud the team and specific individuals affording motivation.
