Most of the time I dread them, meetings. They tend to get all lengthy. Back in university the annual members meeting would sometimes last as much as 5 or 6 hours… And meetings usually seem to avoid fun topics like you would the plague.
But I also know they are a fact of running a business, so today I present to you my top 5 meeting tips. These tips can be used to steer a meeting in the direction you want to, and have it done with in an orderly time frame.
Tip 1 – Avoid meetings with unclear agendas
The best way to make sure a meeting takes forever is to start the meeting without a clear agenda. Don’t confuse this with having a meeting without an agenda. If there’s no agenda, call in sick, drive your car into a tree (slowly) so it needs to go to the garage, or make up any other excuse possible: it will not be a good meeting.
With unclear I mean the fact that the meeting president has decided on the agenda, and presents it for the first time … at the meeting. This is bad because none of the other people have had their chance to put items on the agenda they feel need to be discussed. Also, the items on the actual agenda might not stroke with the expectations of the attendees.
All in all, a good meeting agenda must at least contain:
- A set-in-stone start and end time
- The following items: agenda, minutes of previous meeting, miscellaneous items, question round
- Scheduled time per item, with some buffer-time available
And the agenda should be available as a concept at least 1 week in advance, and the final version (after potential extra items are added by attendees) should be available at least 1 full day before the meeting.
Tip 2 – Preparation
Assuming that we have met the conditions of tip 1, we can prepare. It is now possible to have a good preparation for the meeting. For some meetings, preparation is not needed. But if for most meetings, they are. The key is whether there will be decisions being made in the meeting. If yes, prepare!
The agenda should state how long the meeting takes. As a rule of thumb, that is how much time I spend preparing the meeting. That’s right, a 1 hour meeting costs you 2 hours this way. But it saves you in the long run.
A good preparation takes into account the following:
- Items you want to add to the agenda (send to meeting president for the final agenda)
- Questions you want to ask, per item
- Questions likely asked to you, per item, including answers or answer strategies (if A then B, if C then D, etc)
- Goals, per item, such as decisions you want to have made during the meeting
Tip 3 - Minutes and actions
Every meeting should have minutes being made and actions defined. Minutes and actions should be sent out no later than 1 day after the meeting. If a meeting does not seem to have minutes, request them being made. Minutes allow you to review decisions made at the meeting at a later point in time, which is very important.
The same with actions. Actions should consist of the following information:
- Unique number / identification
- Person / name
- Description of the action
- Date added
- Deadline
- Status (new, in progress, done)
Tip 4 – Focus
In many meetings there seems to be little focus. People tend to switch the topic half way during an item. If you are ever the president of a meeting, or you see a meeting go out of focus in this way, address it. The new item should be placed at the end of the meeting (write this down!) during miscellaneous items, if time permits.
Tip 5 – Token
If you have a meeting where you think the people might heat up in the discussions, this might be a golden tip for you. The United Nations and other big meetings use this approach, which is also known as the talking stick or feather.
The idea is simple; introduce a token, which allows the holder to speak. Only the holder can give the token to someone else, but only after the person is done talking about the item at hand. For small meetings you can just let the token rotate the group. This is the easiest way to make sure everyone gets their say in the meeting.
Wed, Dec 16, 2009
Entrepreneurship