Successful meetings. Review on General Tips on Conducting Meetings

Meetings are an effective means of

1.Communicating to a group

2.Improving the quality of decisions

3.Providing a forum for structured discussions

4.Contributing towards team building

That just sounds terribly management bookish - and never seems to happen in reality!  The number of meetings I attend - I ought to know!  From personal experience, I can quite honestly say that a meeting usually achieves its aims and objectives only when the chair is ruthless and avoids or minimises unhelpful digressions and interruptions. One of my very senior colleagues is a retired Civil Service Director, and never have I met such a fantastic chairperson.  It is an acquired skill he claims and I don't doubt it for a minute!  The public sector in UK is famous for its committees and meetings to form and run these committees which then results in several sub-committees.  And so it goes on and on, meetings for the sake of meetings!  So how does one stick to the aims and objectives of the meeting?

  Agenda – Circulating the agenda well before the meeting helps all the attendees to understand the purpose of the meeting.  This gives the meeting direction and also sets the forum for areas to be covered as a part of the meeting.  Allocating time budgets for each item on the agenda further helps keep track of time involved in conducting the meeting.

  Preparation – Providing the relevant paperwork beforehand gives attendees enough time to be prepared with comments and queries.  It saves unnecessary time spent during the meeting reading paperwork that could have been done outside the remit of the meeting.

  People – This is perhaps the most important point in helping to reduce or avoid digressions.  Only those people that have been identified as relevant and are affected by the issues to be discussed in the meeting need be invited.  Most companies have one or two individuals who attend meeting simply to seen to be part of that team or because there is free lunch provided after the meeting.  Avoiding the inclusion of such ‘drifters’(who are only there for the free lunch!) helps keep track of the agenda and time constraints.

  Location - Holding meetings in very cold rooms in the middle of winter and very hot rooms in the middle of summer, or in general terms, in rather uncomfortable surroundings is very useful.  This has two benefits - 1. Everyone will be wide-awake and 2. The meeting will never last longer than the scheduled time.

Trust me - it’s a tried and tested technique!