What makes good meetings

The number one factor for a successful meeting is having a clear goal and a concrete agenda. Entrepreneur and influencer Neil Patel says he refuses to have a meeting simply for the sake of having a meeting. He starts every meeting by stating the ultimate goal for that meeting. Instead, they are goal-oriented business events. An off-site session is perfect for avoiding meeting fatigue. Take your staff to the nearby cafe, to the park or even a bar. After the meeting, follow up on your team if they enjoyed the change of pace and found it constructive.

The key to successful meeting management is in the preparation. Before the meeting starts, provide all participants with an agenda. Ask yourself ruthlessly: Do all these people really need to attend the meeting? Most of the time, a brief summary by email will work just as well. The purpose of meetings is to make decisions, not to simply share information.

Read on: Still managing your meeting history on a spreadsheet? Read why you need an Excel Alternative. Need inspiration?

Late arrivals can eat up 5 to 10 minutes of the meeting, or in most cases — make the meeting 10 minutes longer. Waiting up for people who are habitually late is unfair to those who show up on time. The solution? Employees of TINYpulse, an employee engagement software company, rarely forget a meeting because the company starts them at an odd time.

Employees become more engaged, more collaborative and less territorial when they participate in a project that involves standing. Professor Bob Sutton, the co-author of the management book Hard Facts, observed this as he was writing the book. With no place to sit, they covered everything fast and effectively.

That led the team to look into a study that compared the decisions made by teams who had stand-up meetings vs groups holding seated meetings.

The experience and knowledge of your employees is a valuable resource. Not-so-great meetings, on the other hand, drain energy, and lower morale.

Be outcome minded : To move your meetings toward the outcomes you seek, try framing agenda items as a statement of the best possible outcome. Here are two ideas for designing agendas so they are strategic and promote outcomes, instead of roundabout discussions. This helps build momentum around forward-looking actions, rather than miring the meeting in lengthy reports and updates.

Second, use a consent agenda to promote strategic thinking by clearing the way for substantive, action-oriented discussions. Meetings as leadership lessons : Even if you are not the meeting planner or facilitator, you can still be a leader in a meeting by modeling excellent listening skills one of the hardest skills for many people!

Often overlooked is that meetings can be tools for leadership development. Asking different team members to plan and lead meetings deepens the leadership bench. All it takes are some index cards and pens. Nottingham said. According to Mr.

Everyone should hold up their card at the same time, so there are no influencers in the room. Nottingham says. To keep meetings in check, do a meeting audit every few months. Take control of your time at work. We'll outline productivity techniques that can be adapted to your personality and working style. Want to try a more drastic measure? You could borrow a page from Stewart Butterfield, chief of Slack, the messaging service for teams, and cancel your regular meetings to see which ones you miss and want to restore.

Butterfield said. Sign up for the DealBook Newsletter, delivered every morning and afternoon, and receive industry news throughout the day. See sample Privacy Policy Opt out or contact us anytime. Adam Bryant has conducted hundreds of interviews with C. He is also the editorial director of live journalism at the Times. Twitter: nytcorneroffice. The Three Rules of Running a Meeting.

Start on Time. End on Time. End with an Action Plan Leave the last few minutes of every meeting to discuss the next steps. Give Everyone a Role. Err on the side of sharing with more people than is strictly necessary.

Discuss the experience with your fellow attendees, and solicit feedback with questions like these:. Even if the meeting was a one-off, this feedback will help you plan even better for your next meeting. Keep an ongoing, open dialogue amongst the people you meet with most frequently, and emphasize progress over perfection. Continuous improvement for the win!

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Tip Include a 5-minute agenda item at the end to capture any open questions or follow-up tasks and assign owners for them. Click to tweet. Tip Instead of having a scribe type up meeting minutes as you go, have the facilitator jot notes down on a shared Confluence page, then share it out afterward.

The psychological ingredients of high-performing teams. By Jamey Austin In Teamwork. Tip If one person starts to dominate the meeting, ask them to take over the role of capturing notes on the whiteboard.

How to run effective meetings, and thrive.