Five strategies for getting the most out of meetings

Make sure your internal meetings are more efficient and effective with these simple steps from business development expert Cameron Herold.

• Have an agenda. Meetings that don’t have a clear agenda tend to get off track easily. They also often include people who don’t need to be there and would be better off doing their job. The agenda can be short, but should include the main purpose of the meeting, the possible outcomes and the action items to be covered. An agenda prevents the meeting from being hijacked by some random topic. It also allows your more introverted team members to prepare what they want to say in the discussion. Most introverts won’t chime in when they don’t know the agenda ahead of time and you could miss some great ideas.
• Determine a meeting style. There are basically three styles of meetings: information share, creative discussion and consensus decision. In an information-share meeting, the information flows in one direction. Either employees tell the leadership something, or senior management has something to say to employees. Creative discussions are brainstorming sessions. People toss out ideas without any judgments made about feasibility or validity, and decisions come at a later date. Consensus-decision meetings are held when a decision is needed.
• Start on time and end early. If you scheduled the meeting for 10 a.m., start at 10 a.m. This shows respect for people’s time, and also reflects something much bigger. End the meeting five minutes early. That gives people time to grab a cup of coffee, check emails, go to the restroom or chat with colleagues before their next meeting.
• Foster useful communication. Some people talk a lot in every meeting. Others rarely speak. For a meeting to be successful, you need to get everyone engaged. Encourage dialogue with newcomers or quiet people first, and then go around the table, moving up in seniority as you solicit feedback or ideas.
• Know your role. Every meeting should have a chair, a timekeeper, participants and a closer. The chair announces the type of meeting it is and makes sure everyone sticks with the agenda. The job of the chair is to prevent the meeting from going sideways. The timekeeper does what the name implies, making sure everyone stays on schedule and that no one lingers too long on any one point. The participants should not be passive observers. They need to arrive prepared to contribute and to remain interested throughout the meeting. The closer generally is going to be the chair. Meetings should always end with the chair posing the question: Who’s doing what, and by when. That way each person acknowledges their assignment and their deadline for achieving it.

Employee frustration will drop drastically if you can keep meetings focused on the task at hand and avoid wasting time. You should be able to get more done faster, and with fewer people involved.