Effective Meetings

Meetings.

Does your heart sink at the word? The meeting room becomes a place outside of time, where people seem to age quickly and energy is mysteriously drained...

Or do you welcome the opportunity to  sit in a warm room, with colleagues you get on well with, and take an hour away from doing 'real work'?

It's very easy for meetings to become a weekly time-waster, so here are Insight's 6 top tips to make them useful again:

1. Have a purpose

It may sound obvious, but often we arrange meetings without there really being any purpose to them. Meetings may be used to make a decision, to update people on progress and therefore to plan next steps, to gain approval for a course of action etc, but there will always be an objective. This should be formalised in an agenda, and the agenda should be circulated at least 2 hours before the meeting to ensure participants can prepare or read anything they'll need. To help you to identify the objective, complete this sentence: 'At the close of the meeting, I'd like people to...'

2. Only invite people who need to be there

Invite the minimum number of people necessary to achieve the objective. Anyone who isn't directly involved is likely to be distracting and chatty.

3. Stick to time!

Set a start and finish time and keep to them. Don't wait for latecomers, mark the mid-way point, and give a 10 minute warning before the end. If the expectation is that meetings wont be allowed to overrun, attendees will ensure that everything that needs to be said and done is finished by the end of the meeting.

4. Have a Chair

Ensure someone is nominated to chair the meeting. Someone needs to be responsible for ensuring the meeting runs to time, covers all points on the agenda, and achieves the objectives. Without a chair, meetings are likely to overrun and lack purpose.

5. Encourage everyone to talk

Be conscious of certain people being dominant in the conversation. If everyone was invited because it's necessary for them to be there, they need to be involved in the conversation, and in decision-making. Make sure you draw everyone in to participate fully, as they all hold valuable information and suggestions.

6. Get rid of all the chairs! (Except the one running the meeting!)

If you're willing to embrace a little lateral thinking, take all of the chairs out of the room - if people have to stand, they're not going to want to spend hours telling you about their holiday! Meetings will instantly be more focussed and succinct.

Got any other tips you think should be on this list? Let us know!

~ Laura