While meetings might eat up a lot of our time, they're also necessary for brainstorming ideas, resolving challenges, and making decisions that can affect a company's long-term viability. A successful meeting necessitates good management – before, during, and after the meeting – engaging all meeting participants. See what you can do to ensure that your meeting is effective and helps your company achieve its objectives.
Meetings, whether you like them or not, are unavoidable. As a result, they must be as valuable and constructive as possible. Here are 3 proven meeting management tips for increased productivity in the spirit of efficiency, saving time, and money!
1. Have a Clear Objective
Is the meeting necessary for the generation of fresh ideas, gathering information, or making decisions? Is it possible that it's a combination of the above?
You can bet it won't happen if you don't know what you're trying to achieve. A clear aim and a specific plan are the most important aspects of a successful meeting.
Neil Patel, an entrepreneur, and influencer says he will not hold a meeting only to hold a meeting. "Without a goal, there is no gathering."
He begins each meeting by explaining the gathering's ultimate aim. "Meetings aren't get-togethers with friends. Instead, they are business events with a specific aim in mind. "I'm not opposed to socializing with others, but there are better moments to do so than during a work meeting," he explains.
Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of "Running Great Meetings & Workshops For Dummies," recently attended a four-hour meeting with a company's senior leadership team.
"And I couldn't tell if they were informing each other, debating, or making a decision at any moment." I'm not certain that the meeting was any more strategic as a result of the senior team meeting than it would have been if they hadn't."
Start with the end in mind, and you'll be successful.
2. Invite Fewer People
Is it really necessary for all of these folks to attend the meeting? In most cases, a quick summary sent by email will be enough.
If you can cut the number of participants in a half-hour meeting by only two people whose presence isn't required, you've saved the organization an hour of productive time.
Meetings are about making decisions, not just for sharing information. When attendees don't believe the presented topic is relevant to them, it's easy to dismiss the meeting as a waste of time.
Are you looking for some motivation? Jeff Bezos of Amazon adheres to the Two Pizza Rule, which states that no meeting should have more attendees than a pair of pepperoni pizzas can feed; This allows for faster judgments and allows teams to test their ideas without being swayed by groupthink, which is one of the Amazon executive's pet peeves.
3. Don't Lose Focus
For some reason, at every meeting, there always appears to be one person who goes off and tells stories that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. And while storytelling isn't inherently bad (rather the contrary! ), off-topic discussion during a meeting can slow things down.
Getting a group of people to focus is the most difficult task a leader's faces. Someone should always take responsibility for steering the meeting back to the specified themes and bringing the emphasis back, whether the organizer or one of the attendees.
Scope creep the term for uncontrollable changes in the scope of a meeting. This can happen when a project's conclusion isn't properly defined, recorded, or managed - and it isn't good for the project's success.
Brivo, a security software company, has a "No Rehash" rule that keeps meetings on track. Employees raise the "No Rehash" Ping-Pong paddle to indicate to others that a topic has previously been discussed.
"I began to notice that we were making many of the same judgments over and over again," says Steve Van Till, president, and CEO. "Not only is it a visual reminder, but it also enables everyone in the company to call out ineffective messaging whenever and wherever they see it." The significant benefit is that no one has to justify applying the rule, and the conference can continue with all of the previous decisions intact."
It's much easier to set concrete action steps and follow up when a meeting has a clear objective. If you don't have any actionable follow steps at the end of the meeting, it should be regarded as a waste of time.
Practice the tips above and be a better meeting session. Learn more advice for any self-development topics and consult with us! Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram @baikgp and @ayureadypodcast for more information and extra insights!