The ten points that make your meetings effective
The ten points that make your meetings effective
A very successful man when asked about the secret to his success answered, “I don’t get into meetings”.
Meetings are important, in that the best communication happens when you sit face to face. There is something about being able to look at the other person in the eye, read his body language and reach an accord. It gets even better when the meeting happens in the same room where you share the same space for that period.
I have heard preachers talk about how the best impact is made when two people sit across each other at a 3 foot table, or 3 people sit around a 4 foot table, with the room slightly low on light and there is silence…. There are similar prescribed settings for various group sizes and outcome expectations; all of which goes on to show, how there is a lot of data drawn and analyses conducted to say what works!
One of the most fundamental aspects of holding a meeting is that there be a set time and venue with an agenda to accomplish a certain desired result. It is amazing how despite this general knowhow, there are still a huge number of meetings that are held with no agenda, no defined outcome and no preset schedule!
People love to meet! It is one thing to meet for team bonding or to just hang out together…. But when you see meetings to decide when to meet, meetings to decide what to discuss, meetings to determine if something is worth discussing or meetings to chalk out agendas, you know for sure, that there is a serious problem there!
Here’s a simple set of rules for meetings that can make them meaningful:
- Your meeting must have an organizer
- You must have a formal meeting invitation sent
- There must be a pre-defined goal for the meeting
- There must be a supporting agenda and it must be sent atleast a day ahead of your meeting
- Every person invited to the meeting must have a contribution to make; only those that have a role to play need to be invited
- The meeting should not in general, last for more than 30 minutes…. setting an alarm for 15 minutes, 25 mins and 30 mins as the meeting starts is a great practice
- Your meeting must follow the set protocol of starting with the goal definition and a formal closure with what was accomplished
- Start the meeting on time. End the meeting on time. Avoid tangents
- Follow the meeting up with a minutes of the meeting sent to all the invitees
- If there are decisions arrived at or action items taken, publish them and follow through
These ten points can make your meetings count. Else you might be wasting your time!
Do not miss a meeting that counts. Do not attend the rest.
