Have you ever found yourself wondering why the “all-important office meetings” are not yielding any effective results or clarity over goals?
Are those countless daily huddles leading to better communication and increased productivity or are they just eating away precious minutes out of the workday?
If you feel that the meetings are leading you and your team away from real work, then you need to revamp your approach to meetings. Here is a 5 step guide to having effective meetings:
1) Determining Whether a Meeting is Really Needed or Not
Research by MIT Sloan has shown that only 50% of the time spent in meetings is actually effective, while the rest is just a waste of time and resources. That’s precisely why it’s important to predetermine the agenda behind potential discussions before calling a meeting.
If something can be done via a simple email or memo, then calling a meeting is uneventful, counterproductive and a source of frustration for all those involved.
2) Having a Clear Agenda Behind The Meeting
Organising a meeting without an agenda is like having a debate without a topic. The meeting should have a clear agenda or goal with all the members of that meeting being aware about the same. There should be a clear pathway between the proposed agenda and the tasks involved to accomplish it. Moreover, there should be clarity beforehand about who’s going to lead the meeting in order to save time.
Agendas that require meetings could range from scrutinising monthly performance and the stats behind them, revamping the daily flows of work, improving customer service experience, discussing new projects, introducing new projects etc.
The best practice is to send calendar invites to employees which lists the time,date, place and agenda of the meeting along with specific instructions, if any. Prior intimation and clarity will help provide confusion and delays that are often accompanied by word-of-mouth communication.
3) Start and End on Time
Hundreds of minutes are wasted every day because people decide to show up late to meetings or the meeting starts late despite all the attendees being present.
If a company and its employees can’t adhere to basic time stipulations for a meeting, how can they be trusted to meet time-sensitive goals and delivery schedules for their clients?
Also, a meeting that starts on time must end on time. Plan your agenda and the discussion around it in advance to ensure that a 2 hour meeting doesn’t turn into a 3 hour fiasco of people glancing at their watches and sighing all around.
4) Engage Your Audience
Keeping your employees or team thoroughly engaged and on their feet will lead to more initiative, sense of responsibility, inclusion and innovation.
Turn the dull discussions into interactive sessions through slides and videos. You should also ask questions periodically to allow the employees to participate and voice their opinions.
Additionally, avoid repetition and keep the meetings clear and concise. It will help you save time and run efficient meetings that actually lead to productive results.
5) End Your Meetings With ‘W.W.W?’
Having a meeting to discuss the agenda isn’t simply enough. The next steps or how to go about it should be decided right there and then in order to avoid any delay.
Follow The W.W.W. system i.e ‘Who, What, When?’ when you’re ending meetings or group calls. A few minutes before the end of each meeting, it’s time to assign accountability and responsibility to fulfil the discussed agenda.
– Determine the tasks in order of priority and sequence
– Discuss/ delegate who will do the particular tasks in question
– By when do the tasks need to be done
Written by Gagan Dhawan
