Take Action #6: Make Meetings More Productive

We have all been there – sitting in meetings for hours on end not knowing what the purpose of the meeting was. OR doing nothing all day except have meetings which include: conference calls, one-on-one meetings, group meetings, online, face-to-face, etc. Then you end the day having 8 hours of meetings and absolutely NOTHING accomplished.

 

You can’t control how other people manage their meetings, but you can Take Action on your own meetings by making them specific, timely and productive. And you can help other people have more productive meetings by asking them pertinent questions before having the meeting.

 

When hosting a meeting, save yourself time by:

 

• Inviting only those people that are critical to the outcome.
• Define what you want the outcome to be – i.e. a decision, action item
• Prepare an agenda with any useful notes/information to help your attendees prepare for the meeting. Be sure to tell them that they MUST read the agenda/notes before the meeting because it will be assumed that everyone is on the same page. It is THEIR problem if they are not prepared.
• Create a timeline and stick to it.
• Tell your attendees at the beginning of the meeting how long it will take and assure them that you will keep it moving and apologize in advance if you cut people off or push people along. One of the biggest disappointments in attending meetings is when the person running the meetings lets people just keep running their mouth off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the purpose of the meeting.
• Keep the meeting short. People will love you for it.
• Tell them at the beginning of the meeting what you want to accomplish so everyone knows what has to happen to get out of the room. For example, before we leave here today, we will have a date for our Fall Convention and the names of 5 potential speakers that we will be researching.
• Save all handouts for the end unless they are pertinent to the content of the meeting – otherwise you will lose everyone to reading the packet.
• Have people send you their questions BEFORE the meeting so if anything needs to be researched or it requires someone with the answers to be in attendance, you can be prepared.
• Have a follow up meeting or e-mail scheduled. So when you end this meeting, you can say: “our next meeting will be Friday at 2:00. If you have any issues with this time and date, please e-mail me after the meeting.” (This way you don’t have a bunch of people telling you their schedule for the next few weeks)

 If you are the one attending the meeting, here are some things you can do to prepare yourself:

 

• If an agenda has not been sent, ask them to send you one. This way, if the leader has not prepared one, they might now do that.
• Ask them if you need to be in attendance for the entire time. Say you are working on some deadlines or have catch up and are trying to make the most out of your time. Who knows, he/she may say – actually I just need you in the meeting for the first 10 minutes.
• Prepare yourself if you have a company call or web-ex where you will be listening, others talking. In other words, the only thing you need to do is listen for an hour. If you work from home, use this listening time to get something else done: folding laundry, filing, weeding, etc. You aren’t slacking, you are being productive. As long as you aren’t doing anything that requires brain work, you can listen and do something else. I realize that listening takes your brain but responding takes more.
• If you are at the office and can’t fold laundry, prepare yourself by saving your filing for during conference calls, clean out your purse or wallet, get your receipts together, make copies. Save all the little stuff for during these times where you just have to listen.

 

Please share your tips on how you TAKE ACTION when you Host a meeting or call.  In the meantime, here’s a great document for how to make meetings more productive. Make Meetings More Productive