Meetings can be a great way to generate discussion, brainstorm ideas and help in decision-making. Or they can waste everyone’s time, lead to nowhere and demotivate the attendees. It all depends on how well run the meeting is. We will share some tips that will help you to ensure that you can run an effective meeting.
Here are five things you can do to get the most out of your meetings and turn them into productive and effective uses of time that can empower your team.
Set an agenda
The very first thing that an effective team meeting needs are direction. As the person running the meeting, you need to set an agenda based on your objective or purpose. That means figuring out who will attend when the meeting will take place, and for how long. It is crucial that the meeting only run for a short time and to invite only a few people. Doing either will run the risk of distracting from other tasks that the participants may otherwise be doing.
Assign roles
Everyone in the meeting should know why they are there. Only some people on your team need to be at the meeting. You must select the people attending and assign roles to them beforehand. Usually, the person organising the meeting will also set the agenda and lead the discussion. Other essential functions that you should assign are someone responsible for taking notes and accountable for keeping the meeting on track and watching the clock to ensure you do not run out of time.
Engage and discuss
For a meeting to be effective and successful, everyone should ideally share their ideas and engage in the discussion. It is critical to ask questions and encourage discussion. That is so that the meeting leader is not the only one speaking. And when discussions occur, you should keep an eye out to see who is not speaking up. Towards the end of the meeting, you can ask for input from those who did not speak earlier. That will help to ensure that they stay motivated in meetings in the future and feel that they have contributed.
Take feedback
To continuously improve the effectiveness of your meetings and motivate the participants, ask for feedback. By finding out how they feel the meeting went, you can better understand how effective it was. This feedback will help guide you in improving the meetings in the future. It will also encourage your participants to be more honest in their discussions and feedback as they see that what they have said matters.
Take notes
It would be best if you did not underestimate the importance of good note-taking. When participants leave a meeting, there is a high likelihood that they will only remember a few things that have been discussed. Note-taking will help keep everyone aware of the discussions that took place. It is always a good idea to follow up on a meeting by sharing notes taken by the note-taker. That is, all participants have a record of what discussions took place and have something with which to compare their notes. And if there is a follow-up meeting, the notes will help move the agenda forward instead of rehashing the same points as the last meeting.
You should now have a better idea of how to make your meetings more effective. Try these tips out the next time you set up a meeting, and you will be able to see the difference. Check out our other articles to find more tips and information on improving efficiency in your workspaces.
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