Do We Really Need Your Meeting?

Meetings can be beneficial whether they are collaborative working sessions, strategy planning, or team meetings. But the majority of meetings we attend are obligatory and a waste of our precious time. We often get calls from leading companies saying, “My team needs to be presentation trained; their meetings are horrendous.” You can regain control of your calendar and your life by only having meetings that matter.

Weekly/Monthly Meetings

Are you actually accomplishing anything during your regular meetings or have they become just status updates,? If you can find no clear value, stop having them. Ask yourself: Do they have impact?  If not, then you need to make adjustments.

Make Your Meetings Count

To ensure that every meeting you have is as effective and efficient as possible, here are our Rules for Productive Meetings:

Only hold meetings when you truly have a need to do so. Is this something I could send in an email? Is it something I should discuss one-on-one with a colleague?

Know your message. Be precise in your communication. Stay on-task and on-topic. Obtain buy-in, clarification, and commitment as needed. If someone tries to bring up a topic that is not on the agenda, place the onus on them to schedule their own meeting, or obtain the information in another manner.

Who calls the meeting owns the meeting. One person should be in charge, responsible for driving the meeting forward and keeping it focused. Keep notes and email them to the participants so you don’t have to recap at the next meeting.

Don’t make your meeting any longer than it has to be. If you only need 15 minutes, don’t schedule an hour. Schedule 15 minutes and stick to that time. If you have a team member that tends to monopolize a conversation, meet with that person in advance, and boil down his or her talking points into key points. Or allocate a set amount of time to each person, and use a timer to stay on track.

If you lead a department, have impromptu one-on-ones with your team members, which can improve employee loyalty and satisfaction. When you must have meetings, make sure they:

• Stay on point and follow a clear agenda

• Deliver useful and constructive information

• Only include the people who really need to be there

• End on time

• Follow up on action items

Follow these strategies for better results.