We've all been there. A meeting so long, so dull and so full of pointless agenda items that most of us have lost the will to live by point three, and are main-lining coffee in an attempt to keep our eyelids in an upright position.
Prepare, prepare, prepare - as any boy scout knows, preparation is everything. Decide what you want the meeting to achieve, and how much of the ground work can be done before getting everyone together. A room full of people who haven't done their homework is a room full of people who are wasting time.
Send out any background information in advance, make sure that they are aware that they need to review it prior to the meeting, and allow the meeting to focus on achieving a result.
Remember, meetings are never free - even a 10 minute brainstorm involving a handful of employees has a cost implication. Keep this in mind when deciding who to invite, and how long the meeting should go on for. Keep it short, and invite only the people who really need to be there. A quick look at costs can be quite an eye opener. Work out the hourly rate of each attendee, their expenses to attend, and add the cost of room hire, refreshments and other associated costs. You will soon see how a quick meeting can add up to a significant outlay.
Strike the right balance - between thorough pre-meeting preparation and endless over-rehearsal. It's common for a less experienced chairperson to look on a meeting as a performance. Focusing on that "performance" means your ears and mind are closed to whatever anyone else is saying. It's also easy to flounder if things don't go according to your script.
Produce a powerful agenda - the power of the agenda cannot be underestimated and neither can the value of sticking to it. While discussion is to be encouraged, the agenda is there to ensure that all relevant points are covered, so letting the meeting drift off topic is a waste of time and money. Set yourself a timescale for each agenda item, and keep track of time. It's easy to get carried away and find that you have spent half the time allocated for the entire meeting on one item.
Think wisely about time - every minute spent talking is a minute spent not doing. Generally, meetings take place to make a decision about something, and involve your most valuable (and expensive) people. Where these people add value is by getting out there and doing their jobs, not by sitting in meetings talking about how to do them. You know what you need from them, so make sure you extract it in timely fashion and then get them back to doing what they do best.
Manage the meeting - it's your job as chairperson to ensure that objectives are achieved with minimal disruption. Let everyone else have their say, but be prepared to step in and control the meeting if necessary. If a room full of big personalities is not managed properly, it can swiftly turn into a shouting match. Once the chest thumping starts, no-one is adding or gaining any value whatsoever. If personal feelings start to get the better of an attendee, quietly suggest that you discuss it after the meeting. Make sure that everyone has a chance to speak; it's often the less confident members of the team who have the most valuable wisdom to impart!
Make it snappy - the longest that most adults are able to focus on one thing is about 20 minutes. Letting a discussion point run any longer than that will guarantee that at least one person in the room is wondering what he's going to have for dinner.
Meetings have their place, of course, and can be hugely valuable ways of using time and resource in the right situations. Not creating the right situation is where the problems lie and loss of time and money ensue -- and that's down to you, the chairperson. Taking your role seriously and following some basic principles of good meeting management can produce a business-efficient meeting that will leave everyone feeling that their time has been used wisely and productively.
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