How to Have Productive Meetings

Identify meeting types: Set clear objectives for your meeting so people know what kind of meeting they are attending and can prepare for it. Meeting types could be broken down into categories such as:

1. Update meeting: Each person can send a more detailed update by email, leaving the update from each person short and focused on any issues to be resolved or open questions that everyone needs to hear.
2. Workshop or brainstorming: These meetings come with new ideas around a particular topic such as customer loyalty and retention or product innovation. These are often led by an experienced facilitator to keep these meetings productive.
3. Team building/social gatherings: This is a time to connect and build a connection among the team.
4. Decision-making meetings: Meetings to discuss the options and a process and criteria for deciding on the best solution.

Reduce the time of your set meetings: Parkinson’s Law says that you will use whatever time is allocated, so cut your meeting times in half and see your meetings get more effective with better preparation and clear objectives for the meeting.

Set some agreed rules of engagement: Leave your cell phones at your desk, only discuss issues relevant to the objective,  prepare for the meetings, no meetings after the meeting, decisions made are accepted and supported, make it fun, and any other rules that you feel will help to make your meetings more productive.

Document the meeting: Ensure the key points from the meetings are captured and that a clear action list and accountability come from the meeting.

Get on the same page. As you get together to discuss your meeting culture, you will come up with some great ideas from your team. Remember, people support what they create. Although it might mean another workshop meeting to discuss this, meetings, when done in the right way, help people take greater ownership and connect with the purpose of decisions being made and how the tasks fit into the greater picture – this is key to ongoing engagement.

Have Fun!