Effective Meeting Tips for Success

Regardless of your industry, you've likely experienced poorly run meetings with lots of talking but little action, unclear purposes, lack of preparation, and wasted time.

As a trained facilitator, I’ve noticed that formal workshops and regular meetings share many common elements.

This article offers my top tips for conducting effective meetings and emphasizes how everyone can contribute to making the most out of them.

Preparation is Key: 80% of Meeting Success

1. Develop Clear Objectives & a Timed Agenda: Set clear objectives for the meeting, ideally agreed upon with the meeting owner, and develop these into a timed agenda.

2. Start Preparation Early: Identify critical inputs, data, equipment, and facilities needed for a successful meeting.

3. Ensure Attendees are Prepared: Save time at the start by ensuring attendees are prepared. Don't rely solely on an Outlook invite—call or visit them to ensure they’ve done some pre-thinking.

Conducting Your Meeting: Skills and Discipline

1. Confirm Objectives with Attendees: At the beginning, agree on the objectives with attendees and discuss expectations as needed.

2. Go Through Housekeeping: Share essential information such as health & safety, meeting room details, introductions, roles, and responsibilities, particularly for long or complex meetings, unfamiliar locations, or new attendees.

3. Consider an Icebreaker: For large meetings, icebreakers can get everyone interacting. Choose ones that inject humour, provoke thought, and facilitate discussion, aligning with meeting objectives.

4. Set Ground Rules for Large or Complex Meetings: Establish acceptable meeting behaviour, especially for workshops discussing contentious issues, problem-solving, and brainstorming.

5. "Park" Points Outside the Agenda: Record actions to follow up on points outside the agenda and move on.

6. Capture Actions As You Go: Record action items, owners, and completion dates before concluding the meeting.

7. Close the Meeting Effectively: Finalise the actions log, review objectives, and capture further actions if objectives aren’t fully met. Reflect on the meeting’s success and note any positives, negatives, or residual concerns.

Post-Meeting Follow-Up

1. Circulate and Follow-Up on Actions: Formal minutes may not always be necessary. Instead, capture actions on a flip chart, take photos, and circulate them to attendees.

2. Ensure Action Delivery: The meeting owner or project manager should ensure that assigned actions are completed, as this is what delivers value.

Utilise These Tools for Successful Meetings

With these tips, you are better equipped to run more successful meetings. Remember, running meetings is a skill. For large or complex meetings, consider involving a dedicated meeting facilitator to ensure optimal value.

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