Do you often feel like you just lost an hour of your life when you enter a meeting that doesn’t serve a purpose, bring an item to closure or help make progress for you or your organization?
What if you held a meeting like that, would people want to come to more of your meetings?
Here are some tips in getting through organizing what could not just be a tough meeting, but a tough meeting that could get you somewhere within your organization.
1. Publish an agenda
This includes purpose of meeting, goals and objectives. Make sure there are tangible things coming out of the meeting.
2. Take notes
Capture conversation, outstanding open items and action items. Determine when you are going to meet again and potential topics for the next meeting.
3. Know when to cut off conversation
Topics could get heated and dominate the conversation. Know when to “take something offline” so that you do not keep people beyond the time you set for the meeting.
4. Don’t let a meeting run over
Stay to the schedule you proposed.
5. Recap action items/next steps before closing the meeting
Make sure everyone knows what is next.
Even though we think everyone knows how to properly organize and run a meeting, we don’t.
Remember, only organize a meeting to make progress, not give status reports.