7 Essential Keys to Run an Effective Meeting

Can you think of anything more destructive to time management than a poorly run meeting? We can’t … and have spent many a meeting wasting precious time. We have spent years of experience to define the critical elements of running an effective meeting.

I am always doing that which I cannot do so that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso

There have been many, many articles written on how to run an effective meeting. We will not repeat the essence of those articles here.

Through more than 35 years of business experience, I have identified these critical keys to an effective, focused meeting. We believe these keys are as follows:

Decision-maker is required.

Every meeting must have one clear decision maker. If there’s no decision maker — or no decision to be made … the meeting shouldn’t happen.

Number of attendees

No more than ten people should attend … desirably fewer.

Limit the number of people attending the meeting. The purpose of meetings is to make decisions and get work done. For the most part, meetings are not the best way to simply share information (exception: meetings are helpful to share sensitive information)

Attendee input

Every person should give input … otherwise, they shouldn’t be there.

Making decisions

No decision should ever wait for a meeting. If a meeting has to happen before a decision should be made … then the meeting should be scheduled immediately.

Define and manage to an agenda written in advance

Vague intentions to have a discussion on a topic rarely end on a productive note. If you are just getting started with agendas, start with a point from the list of topics to be discussed and make sure that material is provided to attendees at least one day before the meeting. For better results, provide background information on the agenda so that everyone attending has the same information.

What about when you are asked to attend a meeting without an agenda? Ask, “Can you please send me an agenda for the meeting so that I can prepare?”

Manage the Meeting Time

Watching the clock is important for an effective meeting. When nobody takes charge of managing time, it is easy to become careless and unfocused. Remember – when people attend a meeting, they cannot do anything else. Make the time count!

Starting the meeting on time and ending on time (or a few minutes early!) will quickly enhance your reputation as an organized person. If you are running a large or complex meeting, consider asking a colleague to serve as timekeeper. If managing meetings to the clock are challenging for you, the parking lot habit (see below) will be a game changer!

Manage Off Topic Discussions

The first time I saw a meeting facilitator use a parking lot, I was impressed. This helpful device performs two useful functions. First, it serves to keep the meeting focused on the stated agenda. Second, the parking lot acknowledges important points raised by attendees.

Note: The Parking Lot habit must be combined with the Follow Up habit if you wish to be truly effective. Otherwise, you are likely to gain a reputation for simply making a show of acknowledging other people.

Here are a few steps to use the parking lot concept.

At the beginning of the meeting, explain you expect everyone to focus their discussions on the agenda. Further, explain that this rule will help the meeting stay productive and end on time.

Keep the meeting agenda document in front of you as a guide.

Go through each agenda item

Monitor and contribute to the discussion

When someone raises an interesting point that does not relate to the agenda, say the following: “Thank you for that point, Tim. However, Microsoft Visual Studio tools go beyond the purpose of this meeting. Let me write down that item in the parking lot, and I will include it in the meeting notes that I will send out by email so we can explore that point at the right time.”

Take notes

Taking notes in meetings is an essential skill, yet I am often struck by how often people forget to do it. The key reason to take notes in a meeting is to record any questions or assignments that have been directed to you. Let’s look at how attendees and organizers can act on notes.

Take notes in a paper notebook rather than using a computer, tablet or another device. Even if you have fantastic abilities to focus on the meeting, other people may assume that you are “catching up on email” instead of paying attention to the meeting if you take notes on a computer.

If you plan to send minutes or a summary of the meeting to attendees, say this at the start of the meeting and explain what you will include. Sending out meeting minutes, even a few paragraphs or bullet points is a best practice.

These rules sound like common sense, but they often disappear as companies get larger and leadership less decisive.

What do you think about these key elements of a meeting? Have any pointers to add? Have any experiences to share with this community?

Need some help in finding ways to grow your customers? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.

It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

Check out these additional articles on business and its performance from our library:

The Business Intelligence Process Part 3 Competitive Analysis

Competitive Growth Strategy … the Story of In-N-Out Burger

10 Entrepreneur Lessons You Need to Know

Collaboration and Partnerships Are Key to Business Growth

How to Prepare and Run an Effective Meeting

When you ask someone what they do for a living, it’s not likely that they’ll answer with “Well, I sit in meetings all day.” But when you look at the average businessperson’s schedule, it’s clear that meetings make up a substantial part of many jobs—especially for those in leadership. So you see the importance of ab effective meeting.

Meetings are often dismissed as a waste of time, but meetings that have a clear purpose and are well run can actually make things go more smoothly and save time.

And what happens after those meetings is just as important.

Here is a short video that introduces how to run a meeting.

Dealing with meetings is a frequent topic in my work as a leadership consultant. I’ve devised a simple system to help my clients have the kind of meetings they need for the best results possible.

One of the biggest complaints I have from the leaders I coach is that they spend much too much time in meetings, leaving them with less time to do their jobs. But I’ve seen firsthand that a good system for meetings can limit distractions and keep everyone focused on what needs to get done so you get the results you want.

Effective meetings

Meeting management tends to be a set of skills often overlooked by leaders and managers.

The process used in a meeting depends on the kind of meeting you plan to have, e.g., staff meetings, planning meetings, problem-solving meetings, etc. However, there are certain basics that are common to various types of meetings. These basics are described below.

Selecting participants

The decision about who is to attend depends on what you want to accomplish in the meeting. This may seem too obvious to state, but it’s surprising how many meetings occur without the right people there.

Don’t depend on your own judgment about who should come. Ask several other people for their opinion as well.

Send a meeting notice, including the purpose of the meeting, where it will be held and when the list of participants and whom to contact if they have questions. Include a copy of the agenda.

Have someone designated to record important actions, assignments and due dates during the meeting. This person should ensure that this information is distributed to all participants shortly after the meeting.

Defining the agenda

Develop the agenda together with key participants in the meeting. Think of what overall outcome you want from the meeting and what activities need to occur to reach that outcome. The agenda should be organized so that these activities are conducted during the meeting.

In the agenda, state the overall outcome that you want from the meeting. Design the agenda so that participants get involved early by having something for them to do right away and so they come on time.

Ask participants if they’ll commit to the agenda. Don’t overly design meetings; be willing to adapt the meeting agenda if members are making progress in the planning process.

Think about how you label an event, so people come in with that mindset; it may pay to have a short dialogue around the label to develop a common mindset among attendees, particularly if they include representatives from various cultures.

Opening the meeting

Always start on time; this respects those who showed up on time and reminds late-comers that the scheduling is serious.

Welcome attendees and thank them for their time.

Review the agenda at the beginning of each meeting, giving participants a chance to understand all proposed major topics, change them and accept them.

Note that a meeting recorder if used will take minutes and provide them back to each participant shortly after the meeting.

Establishing meeting ground rules

You don’t need to develop new ground rules each time you have a meeting, surely. However, it pays to have a few basic ground rules that can be used for most of your meetings. These ground rules cultivate the basic ingredients needed for a successful meeting.

Four powerful ground rules are: participate, get focus, maintain momentum and reach closure.

List your primary ground rules on the agenda.

If you have new attendees who are not used to your meetings, you might review each ground rule.

Keep the ground rules posted at all times.

Time management

One of the most difficult facilitation tasks is time management — time seems to run out before tasks are completed. Therefore, the biggest challenge is keeping momentum to keep the process moving.

You might ask attendees to help you keep track of the time.

If the planned time on the agenda is getting out of hand, present it to the group and ask for their input as to a resolution.

Checking the meeting process

It’s amazing how often people will complain about a meeting being a complete waste of time — but they only say so after the meeting. Get their feedback during the meeting when you can improve the meeting process right away.

Evaluating a meeting only at the end of the meeting is usually too late to do anything about participants’ feedback.

Conduct 5-10 minutes “satisfaction checks”.

In a round-table approach, quickly have each participant indicate how they think the meeting is going.

Meeting closing

An important part ending a meeting. Here are the three things you need to make sure you do before adjourning any meeting:

Confirm key decisions. Make sure everyone is on the same page about any decisions that were made. It’s important that everyone comes away with a shared understanding because it will help focus everyone to move in the same direction.

meeting closing — **Closing the meeting.**

Agree upon the next action steps. Have everyone agree upon the next steps and what actions will be taken. Make it clear that you expect each step to be fulfilled as agreed upon, and that any changes or unforeseen obstacles need to be discussed as soon as they emerge.

Create commitments. Be clear about the commitments and responsibilities that are made during the meeting so you can follow up by sending everyone involved a communication about the key objectives and action items.

The goal is for everyone to commit to accomplishing their tasks on schedule. Make sure to assign someone to check in at appropriate intervals to ensure that the commitments are being kept and, when necessary, re-evaluated in light of unexpected issues.

What do you do to get yourself and those around you in the right frame of reference for top performance?

Do you have any stories to share your attitude motivation? Any comments or questions to add below?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your positive thinking and attitude. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Aware of These Amazing Facts on Innovation?

Creative Collaboration is the Solution for the Toughest Business Problems

Ideas on Learning Reform and Its Instructional Implications

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Effective Meeting: 7 Essential Keys to Run Yours

Pablo Picasso: I am always doing that which I cannot do so that I may learn how to do it. Can you think of anything more meaningful to time management than to run an effective meeting?

We can’t … and have spent many a meeting wasting precious time. We have spent years of experience to define the critical elements of running a meeting.

There have been many, many articles written on how to run an effective meeting. We will not repeat the essence of those articles here.

Through more than 35 years of business experience, I have identified these critical keys to an effective, focused meeting. We believe these keys are as follows:

Decision-maker is required.

Every meeting must have one clear decision maker. If there’s no decision maker — or no decision to be made … the meeting shouldn’t happen.

Number of attendees

No more than ten people should attend … desirably fewer.

Limit the number of people attending the meeting. The purpose of meetings is to make decisions and get work done. For the most part, meetings are not the best way to simply share information (exception: meetings are helpful to share sensitive information)

Attendee input

Every person should give input … otherwise, they shouldn’t be there.

Effective meeting … making decisions

No decision should ever wait for a meeting. If a meeting has to happen before a decision should be made … then the meeting should be scheduled immediately.

Define and manage to an agenda written in advance

Vague intentions to have a discussion on a topic rarely end on a productive note. If you are just getting started with agendas, start with a point from the list of topics to be discussed and make sure that material is provided to attendees at least one day before the meeting. For better results, provide background information on the agenda so that everyone attending has the same information.

What about when you are asked to attend a meeting without an agenda? Ask, “Can you please send me an agenda for the meeting so that I can prepare?”

Effective meeting … manage the meeting time

Watching the clock is important for an effective meeting. When nobody takes charge of managing time, it is easy to become careless and unfocused. Remember – when people attend a meeting, they cannot do anything else. Make the time count!

Starting the meeting on time and ending on time (or a few minutes early!) will quickly enhance your reputation as an organized person. If you are running a large or complex meeting, consider asking a colleague to serve as timekeeper. If managing meetings to the clock are challenging for you, the parking lot habit (see below) will be a game changer!

Manage off topic discussions

The first time I saw a meeting facilitator use a parking lot, I was impressed. This helpful device performs two useful functions. First, it serves to keep the meeting focused on the stated agenda. Second, the parking lot acknowledges important points raised by attendees.

Note: The Parking Lot habit must be combined with the Follow Up habit if you wish to be truly effective. Otherwise, you are likely to gain a reputation for simply making a show of acknowledging other people.

Here are a few steps to use the parking lot concept.

At the beginning of the meeting, explain you expect everyone to focus their discussions on the agenda. Further, explain that this rule will help the meeting stay productive and end on time.

Keep the meeting agenda document in front of you as a guide.

Go through each agenda item

Monitor and contribute to the discussion

When someone raises an interesting point that does not relate to the agenda, say the following: “Thank you for that point, Tim. However, Microsoft Visual Studio tools go beyond the purpose of this meeting. Let me write down that item in the parking lot, and I will include it in the meeting notes that I will send out by email so we can explore that point at the right time.”

Take notes

Taking notes in meetings is an essential skill, yet I am often struck by how often people forget to do it. The key reason to take notes in a meeting is to record any questions or assignments that have been directed to you. Let’s look at how attendees and organizers can act on notes.

Take notes in a paper notebook rather than using a computer, tablet or another device. Even if you have fantastic abilities to focus on the meeting, other people may assume that you are “catching up on email” instead of paying attention to the meeting if you take notes on a computer.

If you plan to send minutes or a summary of the meeting to attendees, say this at the start of the meeting and explain what you will include. Sending out meeting minutes, even a few paragraphs or bullet points is a best practice.

These rules sound like common sense, but they often disappear as companies get larger and leadership less decisive.

What do you think about these key elements of a meeting? Have any pointers to add? Have any experiences to share with this community?

EMPLOY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE — Employ customer experience, yes?

Need some help in finding ways to grow your customers? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.

It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

Check out these additional articles on business and its performance in our library:

Retail Design …11 Ways Businesses Are Responding to the Future

7 Surprising Things to Know About the Zillow Business Model

10 Lessons for Successful Entrepreneurs You Need to Know

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.