Recently Psychology Today stated 47% of workers feel the #1 timewaster in the office is “too many meetings”. Are you among them? If you’re considering reducing the number of your organization’s weekly meetings and/or the time spent in them, here are some tips to help you run more effective meetings.
Email your agenda out to meeting participants 24 hours before the meeting
The key to having an effective meeting is to allow people to come up with questions they may have on your materials. If there is something that someone doesn’t understand in your materials, they can talk to you about the questions they have in a more concise manner. This expedites the entire communications process.
Arrive at least 5 minutes early
One of the biggest reasons a meeting turns out to be a failure is because the meeting wasn’t properly set up in the first place. Make sure you’ve given yourself enough time to start any equipment you need, put materials in front of seats, and prepare the room in other ways that you may need so that your meeting can start on time. Without this good first impression, many people will simply write off your entire presentation.
Manage side conversations in a professional way
Sometimes a side conversation is going on because someone doesn’t understand what you’ve said, but they don’t want to bother the entire presentation with their question. At other times, the smartphone is out, people are talking about Joe’s recent Facebook post, and the side conversation is a distraction from what you’re trying to share. Not every side conversation needs to be stopped, but ones that can cause a distraction must be confronted immediately for the good of the entire meeting.
Don’t challenge the person – challenge the idea instead
Many people use their experiences and perspectives to develop their opinions. You can challenge their idea without challenging the person and their work directly, all the while guiding them to connect their opinion with yours. When you can disagree without being disagreeable, more people feel comfortable participating.
The meeting doesn’t end after the meeting ends
Send a follow-up email 24 hours after the meeting seeking feedback, additional questions, and summarize the meeting for everyone in writing. Doing so provides a record of everyone’s attendance, you give people one final chance in a non-threatening way to contribute, and the reminder helps people better retain the information you have given them.
By following these tips, you will be able to run more effective meetings 100% of the time. What adjustments could you make today to make sure your meetings can be as effective as you’ve imagined them to be?
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