Effective Meeting Management: 12 Tips to Improve Meeting Productivity

Meetings are the bane of employees in corporate America. Very few will
dispute that they are a colossal waste of time. Most will admit to
doing other work while in meetings to take advantage of the "down
time." Many managers go from meeting to meeting in a zombie-like daze.
What can be done to break this spell and ease the pain? Here are a few
tips for making meetings more effective.

1) Only Meet if You Must - If you can accomplish your goal without a
meeting don't have one. Why spend the time scheduling something if
it's not necessary?

2) Limit Attendance - The more people in a meeting the longer it tends
to take. So, invite only those that need to attend. Additional parties
can be included in the distribution of minutes or can be contacted as
needed before or after the meeting.

3) Be Prepared - This usually gets a chuckle of disbelief. People
can't imagine finding the time to actually prepare for meetings since
all their time is taken up attending them. The fact is that lack of
attendee preparation just feeds the insatiable meeting monster. Things
don't get accomplished, so additional ineffective meetings are
spawned, and the cycle repeats.

Prepare your schedule a week in advance and block off time, even if
it's ten to fifteen minutes, to prepare for upcoming meetings. It will
be time well spent.

4) Send Out an Agenda - If people are to prepare for a meeting, they
need to know what it is about. Let them know. Send out an agenda a few
days in advance.

5) Arrive on Time - Meetings take up valuable time of multiple people,
so they must be important, right? If that's the case, showing up on
time is not only the courteous thing to do, but it also necessary to
maximize the time investment of the participants. Oh, and dropping off
some of you personal possessions on the conference table to save a
seat doesn't count as being on time! You need to be in the chair as
well.

6) Start on Time - A nine O'clock start means a nine O'clock start.
Facilitators, don't start a minute later. If you start on time
habitually, people will get the message that they must be punctual as
well. Don't repeat things for those that arrive late. No need to
penalize the many for the tardiness of an attendee or two. Latecomers
can pick up what they missed from someone after the meeting, or from
the meeting minutes.

7) Keep to Topic - Facilitation is improved with practice. The
facilitator must learn to tactfully cut off the ramblers and remain on
task. "That's a very good point John. Can we take that up later or
schedule another meeting to discuss it? We really need to get through
a couple more items." People invest their valuable time in meetings.
The facilitator must ensure that he/she accomplishes what was set out
to be accomplished in order to justify the time investment.

8) If it's Worth Having, It's Worth Recording - Take minutes. They
don't have to be extravagant. Keep it simple. While it is best to have
an experienced minute taker at each meeting, it is typically a luxury,
so more often than not, the responsibility falls on the facilitator.
It's not easy for the facilitator to be effective in both roles, but
it can be done. Rotating meeting minute responsibilities among
attendees for regularly scheduled meetings can ease the burden on the
facilitator.

One of the most important things about the minutes is the action
items. They must have completion dates and the dates must be honored.

9) No Grandstanding Please! - Some (typically manager types), use
meetings to show that they are on top of things. They feel absolutely
obligated to pipe up to show that they are the boss. Bosses, there is
really no need to do this. These attempts to impress typically
backfire and actually demonstrate a lack of knowledge.

Others use valuable meeting time to try to impress the boss. Try to
refrain from doing this as well. The meeting is about getting things
done, not about brown-nosing. Offer up your opinions when you think
they will truly help accomplish something. Spend the rest of the time
listening.

10) Be Present - Give your undivided attention to the meeting. Shut
off the cell phone. Put away the PDA. The fewer interruptions and the
more attention paid, the quicker you can accomplish the meeting
objectives and be on your way. This is also the courteous thing to do.
You wouldn't want someone reading e-mail during one of your meetings,
would you?

11) Plan Your Week - Plan your week to include time for you own tasks.
Block items off on your schedule. People will then need to work around
it. If you are attending more than 4 hours of meetings a day, odds are
very good that you are not being effective. Don't let people cram your
schedule with meetings.

On occasion, some will disregard your schedule when setting up a
meeting. If this is the case, delegate attendance to a surrogate. Go
back to the meeting requester and explain that you can not attend. If
the meeting can't be rearranged, a surrogate will usually be an
acceptable option.

12) Keep it short - Keep the meeting to an hour or less if at all
possible. People just don't have the attention span to go much longer.

If you execute the suggestions above, you will quickly discover that
meetings will no longer be the horror that they have been in the past.
Things will actually get accomplished, and interestingly enough,
overall time spent in meetings will actually decrease.

10 Steps For Conducting Effective Meetings

Meetings are not new to the workplace, most organizations have plenty
of them! However, despite the frequency with which we attend and
participate in meetings, few meetings tend to be well run. A common
complaint within most organizations is that the majority of meetings
seem to be a waste of time.

If practice is the precursor to skill development, then shouldn't the
very fact we are constantly being called into meetings mean that we
have all logged enough 'practice' meeting hours that we should have
passed the proficiency level long ago? If sheer number of hours
sitting in boardrooms counted as practice - then yes! However, few of
us, regardless of the number of meetings attended thus far in our
careers, have had the opportunity to participate in truly well run,
effective and efficient meetings. You would certainly know when you
had or indeed, 'if' you had.

Unfortunately, most organizations tend to fall for the erroneous
assumption that running effective meetings does not require specific
skill development and therefore fail to give adequate direction,
training or support. It is left to us to determine what makes a
meeting effective, efficient and successful, and to start implementing
those practices. Hopefully, others will soon follow suit, making our
lives easier and our time in meetings more worthwhile.

The following steps have been found to be those that are absolutely
key to increasing the effectiveness of your meetings. Although other
elements could be added, the following are the foundational elements
contained within all effective meetings.

10 Steps...

1. Identify the purpose of the meeting. This step addresses the
critical question - "Is there really a need to hold a meeting?"

2. Choose your Attendees. Consider inviting those that have experience
in the topic under question, those that are involved in the process in
some way or those that have a vested interest in the outcome of the
resolution of the issue. Otherwise, considering leaving them off your
list!

3. Determine your Desired Outcomes. This step asks you to consider the
end state, the desired results of the meeting. What do you want to
accomplish in the time you have together?

4. Type of Meeting. Different meetings need different types of
conversations. Think about your desired outcomes and therefore the
type of meeting you are proposing having. Are you looking to share
information, to brainstorm new solutions and possibilities or to make
a decision?

5. Develop an Agenda. Each meeting must have an agenda. It serves as a
road map of what is to be shared, discussed and decided upon,
providing attendees with an understanding of what their involvement in
the process is likely to be. Distributing the agenda prior to the
meeting itself allows attendees the opportunity to prepare their
contribution prior to attending.

6. Roles Required. There are a number of different roles that you may
choose to assign to attendees to ensure that your meeting runs
smoothly. It will be up to you to determine what roles would prove to
be beneficial for the group, given your objective(s) for the meeting.
Roles could include: facilitator, secondary facilitators, recorder,
time-keeper, presenters, process guides, etc.

7. Agree on the Ground Rules. Gaining agreement on some basic meeting
ground rules and etiquette can add to the creation of a positive
meeting environment. Setting some guidelines up-front can serve to
establish accountability and reduce members' frustrations with one
another.

8. Establish Decision-making Processes. Ensure that attendees
understand how decisions are to be made, for every agenda item
requiring a decision, prior to the discussion. Attendees have the
right to know and understand the parameters of their involvement in
the decision-making process. Are they simply providing input to a
decision that will be made higher up or are they going to be actively
looking to achieve consensus with the other meeting participants?

9. Clarify Next Steps and Assignments. Before you close any meeting,
you need to take the time to review the agreements that have been
made, the action steps that have been determined and who has assumed
responsibility for moving them forward. This step enables you to
confirm everyone's commitment to the established route and action
steps.

10. Evaluation of Meeting Effectiveness. This final step in the
process is your way to determine how each of the attendees felt about
the meeting. You can make this as formal or informal a component as
you choose, but don't overlook determining what worked for the
attendees and what didn't. Think of this as your personal feedback
tool, ensuring that you continue to refine your meeting management
skills.

Make your project management meetings successful

by Ron Rosenhead

Everyone was in the room waiting for the project manager to chair the project meeting. Five minutes went by, then ten minutes. Eventually he rushed in, covered in sweat, with papers under his arm.

He settled into his chair, fussed over his papers and then said: "Look, we do not have much time, so I think we had better cut to agenda item 5

"What about items 1-4" asked a team member? "There is some important stuff in them. We need an answer to the budget issue for the new equipment. If we delay beyond the end of this week then the price goes up and this will increase the budget by 7%." Silence

"Look, this is something you need to deal with. I need to sort out the conference venue and speakers."

"Umm, I thought I was sorting out the conference venue", said another team member. Silence, (again)

The project manager looked at the 4 people around him and seemed lost and in a panic. He said, "It looks like we will have to skip this meeting, sorry." He collected his papers and ran out of the door. The others looked around and one person summed it up by simply shrugging his shoulders.

Well, hardly a very productive meeting and while some of this may seem far fetched, it is not according to people who come on our project management training courses, far from the truth.

The problem is that people who attend our project management courses say there are so many meetings that are unsatisfactory. They waste time and money, do not make decisions and are poorly planned - a big error for someone involved in projects!

Project managers need to develop their meeting skills. This includes chairing meetings as well as the skills of being a participant. Preparation is needed and often lots of it.

I recently went to a meeting run by a person who spent three hours in preparation, looking at how to introduce the subject, when to introduce others as well as setting the overall tone. She normally prepares for a meeting and said that this was especially true of this meeting as she expected it to be difficult. By spending time planning she felt that she avoided the possible confrontation.

Now I am not suggesting you need to spend 3 hours preparing for your project meetings but prepare you must as a person who attends a meeting or as the person who chairs the meeting. If you have not, you need to be trained to play your part effectively and you need to obtain some feedback on the effectiveness of your meetings. Interestingly, few project managers have had any formal training in chairing skills but chair several meetings including project management ones.

"A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours." Milton Berle

Efficiënte teammeetings: tijdbesparende tips

Meetings in many companies are one of the most popular activities. Yet many meetings all but efficient. Some meetings are downright unnecessary.
A good meeting may nevertheless a great bear fruit . We give some tips for your next meetings in the right direction :

1. Know what you want. Sometimes , people sit together to brainstorm , sometimes see they prefer to the problems solved and another time it is intended for informational purposes only . You determine and distributes the agenda best in advance. This avoids you know that your fellow team members excited ideas to start spouting while you really 're waiting for a important decision.
2. frequently far moren is not a luxury , especially when it comes to projects with strict deadlines. Yet it is pointless to out of habit hold a meeting when there is little or nothing to say. Such meetings will quickly turn into an extra coffee break or a relaxing moment . Will require some practice sessions valuable time of the participants. Therefore, if there is nothing to say or to decide is , do better to the meeting cancel .
3. Last meeting was good for nothing. after 75 minutes disappears the concentration of the participants than as snow in the Sun If you still get stuck in a marathon meeting, try then to ensure that adequate rest breaks are inserted .
4. Conference on pace. Work systematically and checked the items from the agenda . Nothing is more frustrating than a full agenda of which only two points are discussed because there is too much out wide. It 's your job to it under control keep .

Source : vacature.com

7 tips om om efficiënter te vergaderen

1 . Place only a meeting place when there actually need is .
Often happen meetings out of custom or security ( "there 'd better something to report be ).

2 . Put in advance an agenda .
Make this known to the people who should know so they can prepare . try you to agenda. This will avoid a meeting to urge strikes .

3 . Last meeting was good for nothing .
after 75 minutes disappears the concentration of the participants than as snow in the Sun If you still get stuck in a marathon meeting, try then to ensure that adequate rest breaks are inserted .

4 . Try to start on time , even if not everyone present.
Depending on the type of people you them meet you can play with timing. You know your fellow conference agents often tend to endless elaboration, planning the meeting or shortly before noon or shortly before the end of the day . Are people who have difficulty punctual , work with a strange time, for example 17 after hours . This way of working would punctuality encourage .

5 . Keep the number of participants to the meeting is limited .
The more people, the more different views . Moreover, people who are not really needed at the meeting just wasting their time . The same goes for you , if you do not really need it , then stay rather away . Ask if necessary, the report afterwards.

6 . Make a Plan
Make it a habit to at the end of the meeting briefly sum up and the action plan to overflow. So knows everyone the way out for sure who that doing is . Give everyone a copy of the action list . A report of the meeting can be retrofitted afterwards.

7 . Avoid people each other repeating .
Imagine if need someone to the meeting in the right direction . Be brief , concise and to the point .

Source : vacature.com