Here’s a newsflash: being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive. You can quickly gauge this when looking at employees’ weekly progress reports, right? You can even help them become more productive.
But let’s talk about an area many business leaders fail to manage well: meetings.
Many employees dread these gatherings and for good reason. When not used correctly, meetings can rob you of time, waste team members’ energy and fail to help your company move forward. Let’s be honest: don’t you often leave a meeting with more concerns than when you entered that room?
The question is: can a meeting be the tool to success? Yes!
6 Tips to Make Meetings More Productive
It’s All About Time
Stop wasting your company’s time by changing your approach to time:
- Schedule shorter meetings and see how people get more done in a short period.
- Create a new mindset: the meeting isn’t over when you’ve worked through the agenda; it’s over when the time’s up. This will force meeting leaders to manage the flow more effectively.
- Leave time on your calendar between meetings to ensure you reach the next one on time. This prevents late starts and stress.
Invite the Bare Minimum
Who really needs to be at the meeting?
Yes, you’ll need a host and a secretary to take board meeting minutes. But the others should only be key role players. For more productivity there shouldn’t be more than 10 people present in most cases. Those who need to be informed of decisions made at an executive meeting can simply get a memo after the meeting to keep them updated.
When you manage meetings more effectively you also improve productivity elsewhere in your business: with fewer people attending meetings there will be more workers who can continue their work.
Handy tip: allow employees the freedom of rejecting a meeting invite. If they’re pressed for time and the agenda is irrelevant to their responsibilities, they can join again in future.
Rethink the Venue
A boardroom is ideal if multiple individuals get together or when you have to show a slideshow. But if you have an executive meeting with one or two people, why not go outside?
Fresh air and a stimulating environment will be more beneficial, especially if the meeting focuses on brainstorming; you’ll feel more creative in an environment away from the dreary office.
What is Your Goal? Let Them Know
A meeting shouldn’t be held simply that you can say ‘I held a meeting’. Your board meeting minutes must prove ‘we worked on X and Y’.
Firstly, having a clear goal and agenda will prevent attendees from using the meeting to promote their own causes.
The key to having productive discussions is to be specific:
- Plan the meeting ahead of time in terms of who will share before everyone can join the discussion.
- Set out clear directions instead of general topics. Don’t invite discussion about ‘budget’ when you actually want to know the specific profit made by a certain project.
Also, you should send out your agenda before the meeting. Attendees can get ready to give feedback, instead of wasting time by being unprepared.
Manage the Flow
As meeting host it’s your responsibility to manage the flow of the meeting.
With your agenda in hand everyone should be clear on the goal. They have no excuse for bringing other topics to the table. If they do voice issues that you feel are irrelevant, request that they organize a separate meeting or send out a memo.
Modern technology, such as digital meeting apps and solutions, can make a meeting more interesting. Tip: don’t over-use these tools. Attendees can quickly feel disconnected by impersonal presentations and you risk someone simply reading information off the screen instead of sharing with enthusiasm. Make sure people stay engaged.
End Off With Action
Meetings have different goals:
- Sharing information
- Discussing and getting input
- Getting approval from role players
Be careful: none of these should simply be about communicating ideas. You want information to spark momentum in your business. That’s why each meeting MUST end off with creating an action list.
Monitor whether tasks are completed by using management apps, an online board portal, or by reviewing it at a future meeting.
Conclusion
Teaching your staff to adhere to new meeting rules may be met with opposition at first, because some abuse meetings to push their own priorities. However, with increased efficiency, more useful, and shorter meetings, your team will quickly know that it’s worth the change.
Darren is the Content Director at Convene. Driven by his passion for content writing and knowledge of digitalization, he takes pride in providing content that helps drive digital transformation. Over the years, he has written blogs related to digital meetings, board management, and modern governance.
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