10 Tips and Tricks for More Effective Meetings

Meetings are constantly conducted within organizations today to ensure employees are fully aligned, understand current processes, current issues and further current activities. Although it is quite difficult in many cases for managers to hold a largely effective meeting. Specifically, an effective meeting achieves active participation and collaboration, ensures meeting members will achieve productivity in what they discuss and further ensure that the reasons for the meeting are addressed.

Although as simple as it may seem, meetings are largely difficult to get correct if you miss certain tips and tricks. Below will go into detail surrounding 10 specific tips and tricks to ensure more effective meetings.

Assess if a Meeting Is Needed

The first critical tip to ensure that you can have a more effective meeting is to assess and decide if a meeting is needed. Specifically, through deciding if the meeting is necessary employees are able to ensure that they rule out unnecessary meetings that will waste other employees time and in turn ensure they stay satisfied through not bothering them unnecessarily. Moreover, to test if the meeting is needed, the assessment of meeting cost is essential. This is done through testing how much value-added will be received through conducting the meeting, while further assessing the cost-benefit of doing so.

Identify the Purpose of the Meeting

To ensure a more effective meeting occurs it is critical prior to the meeting to identify the purpose of the meeting. When identifying the purpose, meeting holders will need to list out key objectives that they want to be achieved when holding the meeting. This will ensure that meetings do not go off track and meet the main objective and purpose behind holding the meeting. For example, a meeting may have an objective of generating new ideas for an upcoming project, although if the meeting delves into an employee feedback discussion, the purpose of the meeting will be lost.

Invite the People Necessary

Effective meetings may be attained through ensuring to invite only the people necessary to attend meetings. Specifically, when meetings are held with larger groups of individual employees, it becomes more and more difficult to manage and effectively communicate with the people around you. Furthermore, Jeff Bezos came up with a rule named the 2 Pizza Rule, this rule has the idea to invite only a number of people to eat to pizzas, any more people and then the meeting will become unproductive. Furthermore, studies have shown that when meetings involve fewer individuals, increased focus and productivity is achieved.

Prepare and Plan for the Meeting

It is extremely important to have effectively prepared and planned for the meeting to ensure its effectiveness. Specifically, when preparing and planning meeting leaders will need to ensure that they come up with an effective structure and guideline that the meeting will undergo. Moreover, ensuring what the agenda is, with keynotes about what to cover and say is essential to ensure that the meeting will be largely effective. When a plan exists, meetings will have a clear flow, structure and purpose that will be met effectively with flaws already prepared for.

Assure Positive Location, Rules and Environment of the Meeting

An extremely beneficial tip to holding more effective meetings is to assure a positive location is chosen, rules are established and further the surrounding environment is not negatively influencing meeting productivity. To begin rules are to be established to benefit the meeting, for example when conducting meetings virtually a positive rule that may be put into place is that all individuals must show their faces throughout the entire meeting. Positive location and environment include conducting meetings in areas that promote productivity, for example ensuring that there are natural lights in a room, the surrounding area isn’t messy and further, the surrounding noises are not distracting is critical.

Start on Time

To ensure that the meeting is more effective it is important to start on time. Starting on time ensures that the meetings plan will be followed effectively. Ensure that attendees are notified on when the meeting will begin and allow them to come to the meeting location and prepare fifteen minutes prior to start time.

Control the Flow and Relevance

For more effective meetings to be achieved it is important for leaders to control the flow and relevance of the meeting. Specifically, this is ensuring that the meeting is kept on track, leaders should ensure that when they talk and communicate to other meeting members, they do not lose sight of the overall objectives and goals the meeting wants to achieve. Furthermore, long and intense conversations and discussions should further be avoided to ensure the meeting is highly engaging and gets to the point fast.

Encourage Engagement

It is extremely critical for meeting leaders to ensure that they encourage engagement within the meeting to achieve effective meetings. When attendees are encouraged to engage and add value to the meeting by sharing their relevant thoughts and opinions, they are likely to get more out of the meeting. Furthermore, when engaging others, the meeting will be more valuable as others will remember it and further other positive and reinforcing ideas and discussions may be made.

Finish as Scheduled

It is very significant to achieve an effective meeting to finish as scheduled. Through effectively finishing as scheduled meeting attendees who have planned other things to do after the meeting will not be worried and stressed with the fear of missing their other commitments and plans if the meeting will go over time.

Post Meeting Recap

Once the meeting is complete it is important to ensure that a post meeting recap is to be made to ensure the meeting was highly effective. Specifically, this involves noting down the key points and discussions made throughout the meeting and emailing, messaging and sending this information to meeting attendees to re-read and understand clearly. This will effectively reinstate the meetings critical points into the minds of those who attended and get everyone on the same page.