Organisations often ask for tips on holding effective meetings.
We say – do you need a meeting at all? If so, next time you have to chair a meeting, try these 3 tips.
Start Time
Tell them when the meeting’s going to start and tell them when it’s going to finish. You’re invited to a meeting and you’re told what time it’s due to start. But how often are you told when it’s due to finish? Not often enough. If you’re setting up the meeting you can do it differently. When you set up a meeting tell people when it’s planned to finish. We’ll start at 10 and finish at 12. Easy.
Finish Time
If you’re chairing it (and you might want to suggest this to the Chair if you’re not), ask the assembled company something like ‘Is there anyone who has to leave before the meeting ends at 12?’ Then you’ll have that person’s attention right through to when they have to take their leave – they won’t be distracted by wondering how they’re going to try to slip out unnoticed.
Set Benchmarks
Part way through the meeting try this.
‘We’re half way through our meeting so we’ve got another hour before we finish’
Then,
‘We’ve got half an hour left’
‘We’ll be finishing in 10 minutes so shall we check that we know who’s doing what’
These are the kind of words I might use; you can find your own that you’re comfortable with. Whatever you say you’ll be giving people a structure, a framework so they can concentrate on the subject of the meeting.
You keep your eye on the clock so they don’t need to.
If you have any tips we may have missed out on let us know in the comments!
Like this? Try these
7 Things That Steal Your Time « thinkproductive.co.uk
How to Not Suck at Meetings – Lifehacker