10 simple tips for effective meetings

Did you ever came out of a meeting and thinking?

'Why was I invited again?',
'What was said again?',
'What did we talk about?',
'What are my to do's again?' or simply
'What the heck was that meeting about?'

Believe me it happened to me more than once on my side! I do not know about you, but my working type is the one that comes in the office like a tornado, is anxious to make things happen and wants to bring as much as possible value in the day so that I came come out 8h to 9 hours later (MAX!!!!!!). So I'm really not the type of girl you can hang around next to the coffee machine for 15 minutes... I like to have fun but do not appreciate when I feel that I am wasting precious time. So he's some really quick tips I use to make it short and sweet. Main thing is to be ready and have fun.

1) Prepare the agenda 

be clear on the objective of the meeting. Take time to prepare your thinking process and ensure that supporting document is distributed for more complex topics. Ask in advance to someone to take minutes (taking decision points and actions are what you really want to have) - limit participants to the only ones that should be there....

2) Send your agenda and supporting material at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. 

If people have preparation to make prior to the meeting, let them know a HEAD in advance.

3) Respect people's time

Start at the latest 5 minutes after your meeting starting time. I see too often the chairman of the meeting be late! 

4) TAKE TIME TO EXPLAIN THE OBJECTIVE OF THE MEETING - - -

Do not expect that everyone is clear on what you are trying to achieve. Repeat - be concise!

5) When capturing the actions and decisions, be sure that the minute taker captures, the name of the action, the responsible, the target completed date... 

Do it electronically! This is you will be able to send out the minutes within the following 24 hours

6) For disruptive talkers during the meeting, park non related topic (MANAGE YOUR MEETING SCOPE)

7) At the end of the meeting, ALWAYS have room for conclusion and recap!!!!!! Always review the main actions so that everyone is clear,

8) Do not let anybody go out of the meeting until you agree on the next step!

9) Be THANKFUL for the time your participants took to come to your meeting

10) Assess your lessons learned to be better the next time.

Hope this helps!