What makes an effective meeting?

Meetings are an effective way to bring people together to increase communication effectiveness, collaboration and to achieve results. Meetings result in far more effective communication than either email or teleconferences. This is true because 55% of the meaning and feeling associated with a message is delivered through facial expression and non-verbal signals. Email is effective in communicating only 7% of the true meaning and feeling of a message and teleconferences communicate only 38%.

What is an effective meeting? This occurs when people leave a meeting feeling energised, positive about the use of their time and with a sense that progress has been made. Effective meetings can assist you to generate ideas, plan work, keep your people informed and assist with doing work. However, when meetings are poorly planned and managed they become an unwanted distraction that alienates people and they fall short of achieving their stated purpose.

The benefits of well-managed meetings include;

• Effective communication
• Increase motivation and productivity
• Problems get solved
• Increased teamwork

Which occurs more often when

• The meeting is planned with an agenda developed in a consultative manner
• The objective of the meeting is clear
• Time is used efficiently

There are many reasons to have a meeting some of the more common reasons are

• Communication/information sharing
• Team building
• Sharing work status
• Setting objectives
• Doing work
• Making a decision
• Having a discussion
• Completing some planning
• Brainstorming or generating ideas
• Training or sharing knowledge
• Workshops
• Managing change/consultation and getting feedback
• Finding solutions/solving problems
• Assigning tasks and delegating
• Teamwork/motivation
• Emergency/crisis management

To ensure your meetings are effective you will need to invest up to 1 hour on preparation, this preparation will include

• Defining the purpose of the meeting or identifying the outcomes that you are seeking from the meeting
• Developing an agenda
• Selecting the participants
• Distributing the agenda and pre-reading material

The purpose will inform the attendees why they should attend the meeting and why the meeting exists. For example

• Make final decision on software rollout plan
• Communicate recent business achievements
• Solve the car parking problem

You will find that many efective meetings will have more than one purpose. For example team meetings often include some communication updates, making decisions and some level of planning work.

Once you have a purpose you will need to construct an agenda that will meet that stated purpose.Generally you put the more urgent and important items at the beginning of the agenda and the less important things at the end. (In case you run out of time) Click here to view the different types of agenda templates that you can use. Prior to any meeting you can circulate the agenda and ask if anyone has any other business, this will eliminate people raising issues at the end of the meeting.

Discover more on developing an agenda with our detailed how to guide

You will find that almost everyone is already busy, so it is important to only invite the people that you need to achieve the outcomes of the meeting. However, don’t leave out any key people. The ideal number of participants in a meeting depends on the purpose of the meeting.

Communication meetings can have unlimited participants, where problem solving meetings should have between 6 and 10 participants. The more people you have in the meeting the harder it is to make a decision or have a constructive discussion. When planning the participants to your meetings, consider which of the following three categories they fit into

• Attendees: Meeting participants who are expected to attend and participate in the meeting
• Optional attendees: People who may be interested in the meeting outcomes but are not absolutely required to attend for the meeting to meet its goals
• Guests: People who are invited to a meeting for a specific purpose, they may attend all or part of the meeting

Note: When running large programs I will talk to all of my key stakeholders about the various meetings I am going to run and I confirm with them my choices about including or excluding them from specific meetings.

What to do during the meeting? As the meeting chairperson it is your responsibility to ensure that meeting is a positive experience for all involved.

• Welcome everyone who attends the meeting, personally if possible
• Have a few moments of social chat with people who arrive early to the meeting
• Start the meeting on time
• Start with a positive statement or praise to the participants
• Clarify roles, such as minute taker, chair and introduce guests
• At the end thank people for their contributions during the meeting
• Finish the meeting on time

Tip: In environments where people attend a lot of meetings I will often start a meeting 5 minutes past the hour or 5 minutes past the half hour to allow people time to get from their previous meeting.

It is easy for an effective meeting to become out of control and consume too much time without delivering results for the time invested.

A few tips for effective time management in meetings include

• Start on time
• Assign someone the role of time keeper
• Use a “parking lot” to keep track of topics people want to discuss but you don’t have time to discuss in this meeting
• If someone comes in late welcome them, but do not recap what you have already discussed
• Stick to the agreed agenda

Depending on the original purpose of the meeting there may now be a lot of work that needs to be done after the meeting

• Write up the minutes of the meeting within a couple of days of the meeting and distribute to attendees, optional attendees and guests
• Ensure people who committed to completing actions are aware of their actions and understand what is expected of them. (Assuming that attendees will read the minutes is an unreliable way of ensuring people complete their actions)
• Update the agenda for your next meeting with any unfinished tasks from this meeting
• Ask yourself and the participants “what can we do different or better next time”

Leadership is an investment in people: putting the effort into planning and running each of your meetings is one way that you can show that you believe other peoples time is important and that you respect their time.

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Efficient and successful meetings.

There are good meetings and there are bad meetings. Bad meetings drone on forever, you never seem to get to the point, and you leave wondering why you were even present. Effective ones leave you energized and feeling that you've really accomplished something.

So, what makes a meeting effective? This really boils down to three things:

1. They achieve the meeting's objective.
2. They take up a minimum amount of time.
3. They leave participants feeling that a sensible process has been followed.

If you structure your meeting planning, preparation, execution, and follow-up around these three basic criteria, the result will be an effective meeting.

Set a Clear Objective

An effective meeting serves a useful purpose. This means that in it, you achieve a desired outcome. For a meeting to meet this outcome, or objective, you have to be clear about what it is.

Too often, people call a meeting to discuss something without really considering what a good outcome would be.

• Do you want a decision?
• Do you want to generate ideas?
• Are you getting status reports?
• Are you communicating something?
• Are you making plans?

Any of these, and a myriad of others, is an example of a meeting objective. Before you do any meeting planning, you need to focus your objective.

To help you determine what your meeting objective is, complete this sentence:

At the close of the meeting, I want the group to ...

With the end result clearly defined, you can then plan the contents of the meeting, and determine who needs to be present.

Use Time Wisely

Time is a precious resource, and no one wants their time wasted. With the amount of time we all spend in meetings, you owe it to yourself and your team to streamline the meeting as much as possible.

Starting with your meeting objective, everything that happens in the meeting itself should further that objective. If it doesn't, it's superfluous and should not be included.

To ensure that you cover only what needs to be covered and that you stick to relevant activities, you need to create an agenda. The agenda is what you will refer to in order to keep the meeting running on target and on time.

To prepare an agenda, consider the following factors:

• Priorities – what absolutely must be covered?
• Results – what do you need to accomplish at the meeting?
• Participants – who needs to attend the meeting for it to be successful?
• Sequence – in what order will you cover the topics?
• Timing – how much time will spend on each topic?
• Date and time – when will the meeting take place?
• Place – where will the meeting take place?

With an idea of what needs to be covered and for how long, you can then look at the information that should be prepared beforehand. What do the participants need to know in order to make the most of the meeting time? And, what role are they expected to perform in the meeting, so that they can do the right preparation?

If it's a meeting to solve a problem, ask the participants to come prepared with a viable solution. If you are discussing an ongoing project, have each participant summarize their progress to date and circulate the reports amongst members.

Assigning a particular topic of discussion to various people is another great way to increase involvement and interest. On the agenda, indicate who will lead the discussion or presentation of each item.

Use your agenda as your time guide. When you notice that time is running out for a particular item, consider hurrying the discussion, pushing to a decision, deferring discussion until another time, or assigning it for discussion by a subcommittee.

Note:

An important aspect of running effective meetings is insisting that everyone respects the time allotted. Start the meeting on time, do not spend time recapping for latecomers, and, when you can, finish on time. Whatever can be done outside the meeting time should be. This includes circulating reports for people to read beforehand, and assigning smaller group meetings to discuss issues relevant to only certain people.

Download our free agenda template here, and use this as a starting point for creating your own agenda.

Get Feedback

Once you have an agenda prepared, you need to circulate it to the participants and get their feedback and input. Running a meeting is not a dictatorial role: you have to be participative right from the start.

Perhaps there is something important that a team member has to add. Maybe you have allotted too much, or too little, time for a particular item. There may even be some points you've included that have been settled already and can be taken off the list for discussion.

Whatever the reason, it is important you get feedback from the meeting participants about your proposed agenda.

Once in the meeting, to ensure maximum satisfaction for everyone, there are several things you should keep in mind:

• If certain people are dominating the conversation, make a point of asking others for their ideas.
• At the end of each agenda item, quickly summarize what was said, and ask people to confirm that that's a fair summary. Then make notes regarding follow-up. Our article, Writing Meeting Notes has more advice on how to do this efficiently.
• Note items that require further discussion.
• Watch body language and make adjustments as necessary. Maybe you need a break, or you need to stop someone from speaking over others.
• Ensure that the meeting stays on topic.
• List all tasks that are generated at the meeting. Make a note of who is assigned to do what, and by when.
• At the close of the meeting, quickly summarize next steps and inform everyone that you will be sending out a meeting summary.

After the meeting is over, take some time to debrief, and determine what went well and what could have been done better. Evaluate the meeting's effectiveness based on how well you met the objective. This will help you continue to improve your process of running effective meetings.

Note:

You may even want to get the participants' feedback as well. Depending on the time frame, this debriefing can be done within the meeting itself or afterward.

Finally, prepare the meeting summary. This will be forwarded to all participants and other stakeholders. It is a record of what was accomplished and who is responsible for what as the team moves forward. This is a very crucial part of effective meetings that often gets overlooked. You need a written record of what transpired, along with a list of actions that named individuals have agreed to perform. Make sure someone is assigned to take notes during the meeting if you think you will be too busy to do so yourself.

What Is Meeting Etiquette?

In addition to the three criteria discussed above, your meeting should follow a set of "ground rules" or etiquette, that govern the way you behave.

Etiquette covers behaviors such as timekeeping; the use of laptops and cell phones; eating and drinking during the meeting; whether you can interrupt while someone is speaking, or only ask questions at the end; where you sit, and so on.

These rules will vary according to the culture of your organization, your management style, and the preferences of your team. And some meetings may be more formal than others, depending on the agenda and who is attending. But agreeing to these basic standards – and sticking to them – can help you and your team to conduct meetings in a more professional manner, and to achieve your objectives with the minimum of fuss or disruption.

Running an effective meeting is more than sending out a notice that your team is to meet at a particular time and place. Effective meetings need structure, order and ground rules. Without these elements they can go on forever and not accomplish a thing.

With a solid objective in mind, a tight agenda, and a commitment to involving the meeting participants in the planning, preparation, and execution of the meeting, you are well on your way to chairing great meetings.

Given the frustration most people feel when their time is wasted, gaining a reputation for running efficient and successful meetings is good for you and your career.

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