Will You Please Make Your Meeting Meaningful?

If it's not meaningful, I'd rather do something productive.

I've discovered that poorly-conducted meetings are common. Well-run, effective meetings are rare. Does anyone else have a problem with this?

First off...determine if you really need to have a meeting.
We've got so many other options these days - email, phone calls, IM, one-on-one's, etc.

Second off (okay...that doesn't make sense)...if we must meet, only invite the necessary people.
Translated: If I'm not really necessary, then I won't be offended if I'm not invited.

Third...let us know IN ADVANCE what the purpose of the meeting is.
I want to know what I'm going to talk about in case I need to study up on something.

Fourthly...don't run every meeting the same way.
Create the meeting to effectively meet the purpose (see point "third).

Five...create an agenda and figure out how much time the meeting will take.
The shorter the better!

Six...send all of us necessary people the agenda.
Once again, I want to be prepared and I want to know that you are prepared.

Once the meeting begins to draw to a close, let's take a moment and do a couple of things before we all get up to leave.
    - Let's summarize what we've decided.
    - Let's go over our action items, who's responsible, and what the deadlines are.

And one more thing, since you called the meeting, I don't mind if you follow up with me and everyone else to make sure we're on top of the things we agreed to do. Sometimes we all need a swift kick to the back side to get it done.

Okay, I lied above (not about the swift kick...). There's ONE more thing. I've got a super great TOOL to make you a whole lot better at planning, preparing, organizing, and running a meeting. It's called the MPOW and it's a free, downloadable, one-page PDF.

Check out the MPOW - Meeting Planner Organizing Worksheet

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What does a successful meeting look like to you?

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: What other ideas can you share that make meetings meaningful?

: : : :

Tim Milburn
Student Leadership Consultant & Speaker
www.studentlinc.net

Comments

[tim]

thanks peter. I love the poster as well. there's a bunch of de-motivational posters at www.despair.com.

[tim]

thanks peter. I love the poster as well. there's a bunch of de-motivational posters at www.despair.com.

[Pete Aldin]

Great article. That poster is so so true as well. As someone who has always hated meetings, I think it would have made an enormous difference if those running them would follow even ONE of your tips! :)