Effective meetings

Meetings Overview
• Meetings are an integral part of an organization. It is usually the meetings where the
most important decisions are made for a business.
• Meetings are expensive. According to Wall Street Journal an average:
– CEO spends 17 hours per week on meetings.
– Senior executive spends 23 hours per week on meetings
– Middle manager spends 11 hours per week on meetings.
• The managers researched said that only fifty-six percent of their meetings were
productive and over 25 could have been replaced by a single phone call or a memo.
• When planning to carry out a meeting, ask this very important question – Is a
meeting necessary?

• All meetings can generally be divided into two types i.e. planned/scheduled or
unplanned/unscheduled
• It is important to make sure that the people attending the meeting feel that it is
important for them to attend the meeting.
• Three most frequently reported problems with meetings are: getting off the subject,
not having an agenda and running too long.
• The market trend in meetings is to increasingly use other forms of communication
other than face to face meetings to save time.
The most popular alternatives to face-to-face meetings are
– video conferencing
– teleconferencing
– internet

Preparing for Meetings

• Decide on your purpose
• Select participants for the meeting
• Choose the time and the facility
• Set the agenda
Productive agenda answers 3 key questions:
- What do we need to do in this meeting to accomplish our goals?
- What issues will be of greatest importance to all participants?
- What information must be available to discuss these issues?

A good agenda can do half your work for you before the meeting even starts. An agenda can
have many functions:
– it can give the specifics of the arrangement of the meeting
– it can list the people attending the meeting
– it lists issues and items to be raised
– it gives order in which they will be dealt with
– it can announce the responsibilities of the people attending the meeting
– it states the purpose of the meeting
– it indicates the expected outcomes
– it can place duration on each topic to discuss
– it can list the finishing time of the meeting
We can summarize the meeting preparation to-do list as such:
– Identify problem/need/expectation.
– Develop a meeting outcome.
– Develop the agenda.
– Send out announcements of meeting.
– Book room, refreshments, and audiovisuals.

Leading and Participating in Meetings

At the beginning of the meeting:
– Welcome the participants, make necessary introductions, and check the status of
action items from previous meetings.
– Clarify the meeting outcome
– Set role Expectations
– Contract the ground rules
– Present and describe the meeting agenda items
Body of the meeting
– Keep the meeting on track
– Follow agreed-upon rules
– Encourage participation
– Participate actively
– Take important notes
(Minutes Of the Meeting – MOM, may be used)
End of the meeting
– Conclude and summarize the progress against the outcome
– verify the action items and praise the group for their effort
– After the meeting
– Follow up on the progress of the action items
– Write down things that may improve the meetings in the future
After the meeting
– Follow up on the progress of the action items
– Write down things that may improve the meetings in the future

Using Meeting Technologies

• Emails
• Instant Messaging
• Shared workspaces
• Virtual Meetings