In the current economic climate effective communication and proper planning are vital so everyone knows what is expected of them in the months ahead.

But according to meeting facilitator Meeting Magic, many planning meetings are unproductive and do little more than waste employees' time when they desperately need to be able to get on with their jobs.

"Planning meetings suffer from the common problems faced in meetings, such as dominant characters taking up all the air time and not sticking to the agenda, but they also have their own special challenges," said Katherine Woods of Meeting Magic.

"They often involve multifunctional groups, coming into the meeting with different perspectives about what's needed. This can add to the challenge of group decision-making."

Meeting Magic offers the following tips to help make your meeting more productive:

• Make sure you are clear about what you want to achieve in the meeting and be as specific as possible. In particular be clear about what level of detail needs to be agreed in the meeting. For example, is it enough to agree the objectives and leave the plans for how they will be achieved to the individuals concerned or do you need to agree the top level projects and leave the detailed tactics for outside the meeting?

• It is also important to be clear about what decisions need to be agreed in the meeting. This should inform who needs to be there

• Choose the best time and place for the meeting to ensure attendance by key decision-makers

• Deciding on how decisions will be made in advance of the meeting is critical to success. Do you want to co-create the plan from scratch? Do you want to test a draft plan? Do you want to consult with the group prior to developing the plan or do you want to tell everyone what the plan is?

• Make sure you accurately document all decisions in real time in the meeting, so people can see what they are agreeing to. This documentation can then be circulated after the meeting to reinforce agreements and track actions