Meetings are often a necessary evil in my book. How many times have you had to put your work aside, when you were super busy, to attend a meeting that just ran on and on? Your work is still sitting there waiting for you as you look at the clock knowing how much this is putting you behind. But meetings happen and meetings are gonna continue to happen so we need to look at ways to keep them from being a time suck.
Whether you are running a PTA meeting or a board meeting, follow these 5 Effective Ways to Run a Productive Meeting:
Meeting Tip #1: Look for an excuse not to have a meeting. Ask yourself if scheduling a meeting is truly necessary. Can you accomplish what you need to accomplish through speaking one-on-one, a phone call or an email? If you truly must have a meeting, then follow the next 4 tips.
Meeting Tip #2: Make sure your key people will be attending. If there are key decision makers or players that won’t be available to attend, you won’t have an effective meeting. Chances are there will be questions that will go unanswered and you will have to deal with them again at a later time. Make it an effective meeting by waiting until all, or at least most, of your key players will be available.
Meeting Tip #3: Stick to the key players. Don’t invite people to the meeting that really don’t need to be there. Time is money and if you have people sitting in an unnecessary meeting, then you are wasting time & money. Stick with the people who have the information and knowledge to contribute and make decisions at your meeting. Everyone else can be informed of the decisions that were made through an update or an email.
Meeting Tip #4: Stick to an agenda. Make sure you think about and communicate what must be covered in the meeting and have it in black & white to help everyone stay on track. It’s frustrating to sit there wondering which direction things are going in a meeting as the time ticks by while your work stands still.
Meeting Tip #5: Be cognizant of staying on time. What’s worse than a meeting? A meeting that goes into overtime. One of the best meeting organizers I’ve come across would say, “Lets get through this meeting and if we finish up early, people can stay to chat for a few minutes.” He kept our meetings on track and we would finish early. When you are on a board or involved with a team, people do know each other and want to chit chat, so this was a great approach to be efficient yet acknowledge the need to socialize.
Follow these 5 simple, yet effective, tips to keep your meetings on track and productive every time!
