Run Effective Meetings?
I'm working on a story about how to have more effective, productive meetings. I know people like to complain about meetings, but it's not always the manager's fault. How can managers run productive meetings?
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- Phuong Hoang1320288919
Most meetings are not well constructed, well planned or well run. Just ask any group of people if they want more meetings in their lives. The answer is always NO and when you ask why, the responses usually have something to do with meetings not being productive.
A meeting that does not have a framework for why it is being held or a goal to be achieved and a timeframe for its beginning and end drives me absolutely crazy and it's disrespectful to the invitee's. Again the 6 W's; What, When, Why, Where, Who, and How is missing, No thought process, thereby gaining the company more disengaged employees. We demand more but waste their time instead of finding ways to give them more time and efficiency of process.
My meetings never lasted more than a minute times how many participants (15 X 1minute = 15 minutes)plus any information/updates/need to know's we had to deliver and these had a 3-minute limit; we discussed three things as below:
1. The goals (in their areas of responsibility)
2. Did they achieve what they said they would do? (from last meeting)
3. What are they going to do over the next week?
The meeting began on time...lateness was not tolerated, the door was locked at start time...the meeting ended on time. Notes were taken for folks who were on vacation, out sick, or were late-
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Meeting Frustrations -- People not being prepared for the meeting and creating distrations such as coming in late, consistent checking/answering emails and side conversations.
All of this can be overcome by: sending agendas in advance, sticking to the agendas (so people can be prepared), setting and keeping meetings to 23 minutes or less (minds tend to wander at this point), asking open ended questions to create input/ownership of meeting, and finally (but most importantly), create at least one action item that you leave with (normally something that is very simple and can be accomplished quickly) and execute on that action task promptly to show people that the meeting meant something.-
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It is no good blaming the subject matter, audience, timing or location. You are the manager and you are responsible for delivering an informative, inclusive, lively and relevant meeting. If people turn up late, do not get engaged, argue or misbehave it is most likely due to some failure on your part. I would encourage the manager to be brave and ask his audience how could the next meeting be improved.
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Very nice question, Mr. Tuan!
Meetings are effective when they achieve the group’s objectives in a minimum amount of time to the satisfaction of all participants. To run effective meetings, I think you should pre-publish an agenda and it is essential to stick to the agenda during the meeting. Also, publish the minutes after all. Most out of it, start and finish the meeting ON TIME so that people will not show up late in the next meeting.
By the way, often times many meetings don't need to be held, and often those that are held are attended by more people than necessary so you need to decide if the meeting is necessary.
Besides, we should care for pre-, during, and post-meeting.-
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Hello Tuan,
Meeting is a great chance for the team members to communicate and stay connected. Therefore, it is the time to create teamwork and leap up team-spirit that shall later lead to team's performance in different ways.
This also means the success of a meeting comes from the accountabilities of those who involve (I agree with you that it's not always the manager's fault). I personally look at these 5 key areas for an effective meeting.
1. Purpose/Outcome: is the purpose or the outcome clearly stated to its participants? Is it clear enough to inspire the actions afterwards? how shall it be expressed as an importance/urgency or addressed concerned? What are the outcomes that it expects at the end of the meeting?
2. Process: does it engage people's involvement? is it an inclusive or exclusive process?A survey says that (as well as my experience) an inclusive process often inspires shared responsibilities and more fun while each plays a certain role in a meeting. What's more, the flow of process is important to engage the participants to achieve a certain outcomes. There are different meeting modules such as Open Space Technology, the World Cafe, Technology of Participation or so on - these modules obtain a high level of engagement and propose different methods for the meeting's outcomes.
3. People: who are the right people? are they the key decision-makers? are they diverse enough for the issues?
4. Progress: At the end of the meeting, one way to celebrate the outcome is to get it clear some key next actions steps. Any decisions shall be clearly made so that people can have the sense of progress and achievements of the meeting. Otherwise, at the end, I may not know where the meeting shall go and what exactly I could do to move on.
5. Place: is important with the atmosphere and facilities to create positive physical energy so that they can be at the most creative mode. The physical space is important for the energy to flow.
I hope they are helpful. They are somehow general so if you would love explore more in practices, just feel free to let me know. I am happy to share around!
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