Meetings are a necessary evil in today’s busy working environments. They give the team an opportunity to meet and greet as a group and discuss important topics outside of their day-to-day roles and responsibilities. However, in order for meetings to be effective they need to be minuted, controlled, systematic and organised.
How many meetings have you attended that are just talking shops and go on for hours? This drives me crazy and they are such a waste of time and money. How many times have you attended meetings that are not minuted? How many meetings have you been to where people don’t bring a copy of the minutes, or worse, you know that the time hasn’t been taken to even read the minutes or an effort made to action any of their allocated items? How many times have you been at meetings when the start time is just seen as a proposal and not respected as an official start time?
Simply put, you need to get tough and take action and explain to the team what is expected of them in relation YOUR meetings going forward. Clearly identify/communicate the roles and responsibilities of each attendee. Communicate in advance the allocated duration of the meeting along with a start and finish time and explain that punctuality is compulsory. Take minutes. Ask people to ensure they close out each item allocated to them on time. Ask them to bring a copy of the minutes to the meeting with them and when discussing items, to stick to the point and don’t digress. This will be a shock to the system at first, but after a couple of meetings, and no doubt a couple of conversations with certain individuals, your meetings will become more productive and actually more enjoyable for most!
In the initial stages thank people for attending and for being on time, congratulate those who have closed out his or her action items and don’t forget to discuss any other business. Productivity is so important but do try to have some fun and be engaging.