MAKING YOUR MEETING A SUCCESS,
RATHER THAN A MESS
Meeting goals as the meeting leader
Business meetings have
a bad reputation, and most managers would agree.
This distaste for meetings,
however, can be turned into a genuine appreciation for this effective and
potentially productive business communication tool that can be used to
give and collect information
solve problems
make decisions
and to accomplish many other useful
business activities in your company.
Exploiting this tool does take some understanding of how to organize
your meeting and make it a success, rather than a mess.
Here are 10 tips to
help managers and supervisors focus on the dynamics of the meeting process and
to meet goals as the meeting leader.
1. KNOW YOUR OBJECTIVE.
Don't just "have
a meeting." Instead, follow the
basic principle of all communication which is Know Your Objective. For this skill, that means, you must know WHY you want to gather your employees
and HOW you
will organize your meeting to achieve goals and objectives.
These should be stated at the beginning of the meeting (and in the
memo/agenda -- see point # 3).
You can choose
different formats such as a presentation in front of the room, a roundtable
discussion, small and informal group, or a combination of these.
Regardless of the
format, though, you must clearly focus on the goals you want to achieve, and
the tasks necessary to reach them. Ask
yourself, for example, "What are the root causes of the problems that need to be
solved? What are the important facts I
need to give to employees or to collect from them? What is the best way to decide on the
solutions?"
If you follow this
advice, then you will realize that planning is vitally important you will also
realize that this "pre-meeting" work will save you time -- and money
-- during the meeting. (TIP: Remember that every minute you keep your
employees in a meeting costs lots of money in salaries and lost productivity --
so you are really "spending time!")
NOTE: There are basically 3 parts to a
meeting.
(1) pre-meeting,
which is the preparation BEFORE the meeting.
(2) meeting,
which is the actual time spent DURING the meeting.
(3) post-meeting,
which is AFTER and includes the follow up.
2. CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE PEOPLE & PLACE
Depending on the
problem to be solved or goal you have decided upon, you must choose the
proper personnel (people) to attend the meeting. For example, if you want to collect
information, call in the one who has all the facts; or, should you require
innovative approaches to complete the new project, call in the one with all the
new ideas.
Overall, remember to
include those people who you can use as resources of expertise or
information. Avoid calling in every
member of your department, for instance, just because you "are having a
meeting." Only use the people needed, and keep those to
a minimum.
Choosing the
appropriate place is equally important, because the correct atmosphere of the
office surroundings and even the arrangement of the table and chairs can help
to stimulate ideas, assist in giving or collecting information and generally
can add effectiveness and ease to inter-personal exchanges. Proxemics, or the study of how space and distance affects
communications, does play an important role in creating open communication or
setting up barriers to it. For example,
all the chairs facing each other -- as if in combat with one side against
another -- creates a competition barrier; if the same chairs were arranged in a
circle, "U"-shape or rectangle, the atmosphere would be the opposite.
3. HAVE EVERYTHING READY IN ADVANCE.
Inform the employees
invited to attend the meeting with a memo or e-mail with exact information
about the
Date and time to begin
and end
Location
Name of meeting leader
Names of other attendees
Agenda
-- List of topics (in order and time allotted for each one including the introduction
and conclusion or summary at the end of the meeting)
Contact information
and try to get this information to
attendees at least a few days before the scheduled meeting.
(TIP: With electronic communication so useful, but
also so overused these days, it may be helpful and very effective to also leave
a voicemail for each attendee the day before the meeting if you have scheduled
it for the next morning, or if your meeting is scheduled in the afternoon,
leave a reminder early that same morning.
I have used this so many times with great success, here and back in the
4. START ON TIME & END
ON TIME
It is important to
keep to the schedule so that everyone else will respect the time frame that you
have set up for the meeting. The agenda
with its time limits next to each topic will serve as a guide as you move from
topic to topic, point to point.
Starting on time,
regardless of who or how many did not show up at the scheduled beginning hour,
will also help to discourage late-comers for the next meeting.
Ending on time, and keeping
to the agenda, will motivate everyone by promoting good feelings and lessening
boredom and frustration.
5. KEEP TO THE AGENDA -- Good relations; Good time
management
Too often, time is
wasted by side discussions (what I call "parking lots" off the
subject highway) which are off from the main topic.
Keep moving in the
right direction (on the highway, and not stopping in a parking lot), and stay
on schedule. You can get meeting
participants back to the current topic by referring them to the time limit of
the agenda. In this way, you will not seem rude, because
you are not stopping a person and blaming him -- instead you are blaming the
shortness of the time and motivating everyone to keep to the schedule. As a result, you have two wins: maintaining
good feelings and keeping to the agenda.
6. GIVE ASSIGNMENTS/ACTION ITEMS
Since you have chosen
only the appropriate people to attend the meeting, it will be necessary to
delegate responsibility to individuals and assign action items (tasks) to others,
during the meeting as you discuss each agenda item. These employees must be
informed about the details of their assignments/action items, including
Action
Items -- What to be
completed
Owners -- Who is responsible
Due date -- When to be completed
Put the
Oral into Written form.
To make sure that
everyone understands your oral directions, send a written memo (or e-mail) with
all the details and a list of action items and their "owners” after the
meeting (post meeting).
7. USE AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS & HANDOUTS
Decide in advance if a
list of words or a graph projected on a screen will make points clearer, or
think if a handout on paper will help explain the topics/points to be
discussed.
Have your equipment
ready and test it well before the meeting begins, so you will have time to make
any changes or repairs -- rather than using up valuable time trying to fix
something during the meeting. [Always
have a backup. Make a few printouts of
the presentation, for example, just in case something goes wrong with the PC or
projector.]
Remember the old
saying, because it's true: "A picture is worth a thousand
words." That means an important
point of yours can be even more effective if you have the proper visual to
support it, such as a pie chart, line graph, table of numbers or a flow chart.
Handouts
are
can be effective, also. However, they
must be distributed at the proper time.
|
BE
AWARE . . . |
TO AVOID (THIS MISTAKE) |
|
Distribute handouts
at the right time. The best
scenario when using handouts is to distribute them at the strategically right
time. For example, because . . . (1) it is vital for the
meeting attendees to have the information you will talk about, as you talk
about it; or, (2) to follow your
discussion, (3) to make notes, and to (4) keep the information for later use (refer to the handout
later to remember an important point). |
Too
soon -- If you
distribute the handouts too soon, then people will be looking at the pages
and not listening to you. Too
late -- If you
distribute them too late, then the information they need will not be available
at the right time while you were speaking. |
8. MAKE A SUMMARY OF POINTS
This is one of the
most important responsibilities of the meeting leader.
Periodically during
the meeting, summarize the points that have been made about the current topic being
discussed in the agenda. This method will help participants/attendees
to review their notes (if they are taking any) and assist them in formulating
any questions they may develop before going to the next topic on the agenda.
For you,
the leader, it also provides a transition to the next item on the agenda.
For example, you would summarize the main points of topic C and then
say, "that brings us to our next topic D which
has 20 minutes assigned to it for discussion and recommendations."
9. CONTROL THE TALKING
At the start of each
of the topic, remind everyone about the time allowed (as in the example
above). "It's now
10. SUM UP & END, THEN FOLLOW UP
When you have
completed discussing each topic on the agenda, restate the overall purpose of
the meeting, and then briefly enumerate the decision taken, solutions given, or
ideas presented. If time allows (and
remember to assign a time limit to the summary too), you may ask participants
to clarify any points or you can do the clarification yourself.
When you finish,
stop. (One of the most boring actions is to keep
talking and talking at the end for no real reason. Stopping is better.)
Say "thank you
for attending." Get up and go to
your next work assignment in your office, with a customer, and so on -- and the
attendees can do the same.
(TIP: Remember that ending on time, or even before time,
is very motivating and appreciated by the attendees. Why?
Well, everyone has work to do.
Some may have appointments with customers. And, others may have another meeting to go to
which they scheduled according to your start and end times in your memo/agenda. Keeping to the time will mean that your
attendees will attend again and WANT to attend your next meeting.)
FOLLOW UP
After the meeting,
FOLLOW UP. Send a concise memo or e-mail
about the decisions made, action items to be done and other responsibilities of
the meeting attendees with the due dates for each one.
CONCLUSION
As a meeting leader,
then, these 10 steps can easily guide you toward a successful meeting, but do
not expect them to produce results on your first try. They take a good deal of practice and effort
-- and some time to get everyone's behavior in line with goals and objectives.
In the end, however,
you should notice an improvement in your control of meetings and an increased
quality in the contributions of your employees, so that your meeting will
be a success, rather than a mess.