Guarantee A Successful Meeting With 5 Questions
Good meetings are crucial to good business. Everyone knows this. But how often do we actually think about what it means to have a successful meeting? Do we know what to prepare? What to do? And how can we make sure the meeting is a success?
Here are five simple questions you should ask yourself before you run a team meeting. These questions will help ensure you and your team are scheduling meetings the right way. Theyn can also be used to help motivate your employees.
1. What’s the ROI of a successful meeting?
Time is valuable. If you’ve chosen to stop one or more other people from working for an hour, it had better be worthwhile. Ask yourself, “Will this meeting add value to the business and how?” If you can’t answer this question then postpone the meeting until you can. Rather than holding meetings when you want, ask yourself what your employees need. Most likely, their answers will help shorten the meeting and make it more productive. It’s time for you to lead. The person who speaks first controls the agenda. This doesn’t mean you have to dictate the meeting.
2. What preparation or pre-work needs to be completed before the meeting starts?
Meetings, if prepared for properly, can be hugely valuable and well worth the time. Make sure you, as the host, have planned the meeting agenda and share the necessary pre-reading. It is also important to ask questions early so that the attendees have a chance to review and plan feedback when necessary. Do you want to begin the meeting by sharing some opening remarks? This will help everyone in the room to get a feel for what the meeting is about. If you are a meeting host it will give you an opportunity to address the attendees, the objective and review the agenda.
3. Why should I attend this meeting?
Writing a clear objective for the meeting means everyone understands why the meeting has been scheduled. It explains why they should attend and how they can add value. Encourage people to ask for clarification or not accept a meeting invitation if it’s not clear why they should attend. Nothing keeps a team more motivated and focused durring meetings is knowing that the ones you organize are very important and decisions get made. A successful meeting is one that lead to action.
4. What’s the structure and flow of the meeting?
A team meeting agenda is vital. One of the ways to improve time management is for each agenda item to have a period of time associated with it. Thinking about the amount of time for each agenda item allows the host to consider how realistic the agenda actually is. Time blocked agendas help to keep the meeting on track. An agenda keeps the meeting focused, prevents knowledge leaks and creates an inclusive, informed environment for the attendees. Leave some time aside at the end of the meeting for wrap up.
5. How do we realize the value of the meeting?
One of the attendees must be assigned to take minutes of the meeting. Wrap the meeting up at the end of the session by reviewing the minutes and assigning action items to the attendees. Share the notes and action items with the attendees. It is also important to share the actions or decisions with anyone else in the organisation who will be impacted by them . Recording the meeting will allow people who weren’t able to attend to catch up on what they missed.
Both video and in-person meetings need more structure to be effective in a more complex hybrid-work world. Consider using these five questions as a blueprint for when:
Concerned about meeting efficiency
Motivating your employees
Develop a more consistent culture of sharing follow ups
