minutes to a meeting : How To Have a Perfect Meeting part 1

Many business owners and managers seem to fall into one of two categories. Either they dislike meetings because they always seem to drag on senselessly forever, or they think meetings are so unproductive, they simply avoid them.

Over the years, I’ve spent many hours in both productive and unproductive meetings. As I sift through this history, I’ve been driven to improve meetings both in organizations I’ve led, as well as for those my clients are in charge of. Through I combination of experience and research, I’m going to provide a summary of what I have found makes a meeting not only effective, but also a positive (and brief) experience. I’ll present this in the form of the Keys to a Perfect Meeting.

Perfect Meeting Key #1: Know Your Goal(s) For The Meeting

First, know what the meeting is for. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But how many times have you been to a “Staff Meeting” where you left wondering what the point of it was? Write down the goal or goals on a printed agenda, even if it’s just a few lines. Make sure that everyone at the meeting has a copy of the agenda. This keeps you on track, lets everyone else know what the meeting is intended to accomplish, and it also lets you bring other back on track without them feeling like it’s personal. Instead, you just acknowledge the value of what they bring up, but ask if the meeting could be kept on the items on the agenda for the time being (suggest that their concern can be addressed later).

Perfect Meeting Key #2: Know What Kind Of Meeting It Is

There are four basic type of meetings:

• Information Exchange – These are meetings where one person has information to share with many others. Don’t have more people at the meeting than need to participate in the information exchange.

• Problem Solving – These are meetings where there is some problem that needs to be resolved. The people at this meeting should be the ones who have skills for solving the problem or have a strong interest in it being resolved. Avoid including people “just because they might want to know.” When we involve people who don’t have the big picture, it often just gets them stressed and irritated. They become a secondary consequence of the problem, rather than a part of the solution.

• Decision Making – You should leave these meetings with decisions and clear direction. People at these meetings should be those who have knowledge needed to make the decision effectively, or who need to be informed of such decisions. Again, avoid excess people.

• Brainstorming – These are creative meetings which generally do not result in any concrete decisions being made. They are a place for ideas to be freely shared, without judgment. Have people there whose roles make them likely to offer constructive ideas based on education or experience. Everyone has ideas – make sure to only include those people who have relevant experience that make their ideas likely to be based on practical knowledge.

Perfect Meeting Key #3: Invite The Right People, Don’t Invite The Wrong People

People who should be at a meeting are:

• Those who have information to share based on position, education or experience. For example, a bookkeeper sharing the monthly financial summary.

• Those who have advice to offer. For example, if you’re considering selling a new type of products and one of your staff used to work at a place that sold them.

• They are responsible for implementing an action decided on at the meeting. For example, a teacher who will be teaching a new class.

By Al Lipper