Have you ever felt a meeting was too long or unproductive? No matter what business you are in, (bad) meetings happen in every company.
The question is, what is the purpose of a meeting?
Ideally, an internal meeting is communicating clear guidelines on projects but also increasing motivation to work, encouraging clarity and pro-activeness, and increasing enthusiasm to work in team.
The Covid-19 led many of us to work from home and efficient meetings became harder to organize. Today, we would like to share a few tips on improving meetings.
1. Preparing the Meeting Beforehand
When a meeting is not well prepared, participants are also not prepared. They might not have the time to reflect on a project and prepare great insights or they might even question their presence in the meeting.
Improvement
Before the meeting, it is important to share the Agenda with all members that will join the meeting. The agenda may include a list of topics to be covered, a brief description of the meetings’ objectives, who will address each topic, time and location of the meeting, any background information participants need to know, average time for each topic to be covered etc.
Benefits
· Increase engagement and implication of participants
· Maximize time management and efficiency
· Create a clear purpose for the meeting
2. Shorter Meetings
Meetings are often too long which leads to a lack of attention, focus, engagement, and efficiency. When possible, a 20-minute meeting is more than enough to communicate important info while maintaining the highest level of attention throughout the meeting.
Benefits
· Maintain focus and attention
· Maximize time management
· Increase focus on the meeting’s purpose
3. Encouraging Questions and Opinions
Asking questions encourages clarity and reflection. Sharing opinions inspires collaboration and initiatives. Great leaders encourage and support innovative ideas simply because if you kill initiatives, you kill business.
Questions such as:
- “Who has more insight that they’d like to share on this?”
- “Does anyone foresee any issue with this approach?”
- “What are we not thinking about that we should consider?”
- “Who else might be involved in this?” Etc.
Benefits
· Give space for all and open discussion
· Encourage everyone’s pro-activeness
· Increase clarity on projects
4. Constant Improvement
It is always a good idea to receive feedback from colleagues on improving meetings. For instance, every quarter, each colleague can share anonymously (or not) the positive aspects of meetings and points to improve to increase the overall business efficiency.
Benefits
· Encourage reflection and engagement
· Improve meetings’ efficiency
Overall, meetings are a very important aspect of any organization and optimizing meetings can improve all other aspects of business. What about you, what are your tips for efficient meetings?
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