Getting stuck in at least one bad meeting is something we have all experienced in our careers. Whether the meeting started late, felt like it would never end, had no clear objective or agenda, or even had no one paying attention because they were all too preoccupied with their phones, it can leave us questioning in our mind ‘why am I even here?’.

Meetings can take up a significant amount of time in the workday, and if they aren’t being run effectively, this can directly impact your workplace’s productivity. Ultimately what you want from these meetings is for your team to have a clear direction and the confidence to play their part in achieving organizational success. So how do you accomplish this? Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Set an agenda: Whether it is sent out in a memo, displayed on a screen in the meeting, or verbally outlined at the start of the meeting, having an agenda is important so people know why you have called the meeting and what you aim to accomplish with it. Having this clear purpose and understanding will aid in providing direction to the meeting, helping you get back on track should the conversation wander, and helping your employees to see that the meeting is not a waste of time.
   
   
2. Start and end on time: Your employees will appreciate it when you recognize that their time is valuable by sticking to a schedule for your meeting. If you are hosting meetings regularly, you will find that your employees are more willing to attend and contribute if they know you stick to the schedule. You can ensure your meetings start and end on time by assigning a timeline to your meeting agenda, to which everyone has access. This will help to keep people focused, ensure that you accomplish what you set out to, and help get your employees back to work promptly.
   
   
3. Invite only those who need to be there: Does your whole team need to be at every meeting? Probably not. When you are organizing a meeting, take the time to consider who the content of the meeting is actually relevant to. If you are inviting everyone, and people feel like the meeting isn’t relevant to them, they will walk into the meeting already with the mindset that it is a waste of time.
   
   
4. Encourage everyone to participate: Create an open environment for anyone to share their input on the discussion. Without singling anyone out, ask questions to the group and invite contributions from the whole team. By not putting them on the spot, you may find that even those who may seem reluctant to speak up, do.
   
   
5. End with a plan of action: As the meeting draws to a close, take some time to discuss what should happen after the meeting. This should include outlining who is accountable for what, what resources are available, and the deadlines that need to be met. Without this plan of action, did you really need the meeting?
   
   
6. Follow up: Mishearing or misunderstandings can lead to people walking away from the exact same meeting with different interpretations of what happened and what needs to happen next. To reduce the risk of this, send a memo email to all those who attended the meeting outlining what was discussed, agreed on, and assigned to who. This will ensure everyone is on the same page moving forward.

Meetings can and should be a very productive and valuable part of the work day. As a leader, however, it is your responsibility to ensure you implement the steps necessary to make them that way. If you would like to learn more about improving the productivity of your organization, get in touch with me today.