Meetings are an essential tool for business planning and are an effective way to facilitate decision making, identify problems and develop strategies to address setbacks – at least that’s what they are. meant be!
However, for some organizations, meetings can seem counterproductive, inefficient, or just a simple waste of time. This can often be the result of poor meeting structure and insufficient planning. Consider if your business meetings suffer from any of the following:
- Poor structure or unorganized agenda
- Endlessly and no identifiable results achieved
- Free for everyone or just one or two attendees dominating the conversation
- Unresolvable conflict that kills productivity
- No follow through: items agreed upon during the meeting are not carried out
To achieve a successful business meeting and avoid these common meeting mistakes, it is important to work through three critical stages:
- Forecast – Before stepping foot in the boardroom, individual participants need to plan and prepare for the meeting. This means developing an agenda in advance, familiarizing yourself with the reports and data that will be discussed during the meeting, and preparing the preliminary questions and talking points that will be raised. It’s up to the organizer to make sure the materials are distributed in a timely manner, and it’s up to the participants to review everything they receive and come prepared.
- Facilitation – Regardless of whether it is a preliminary meeting or a weekly meeting, a successful business meeting must be facilitated. One person should be in charge of chairing the meeting and making sure that agenda items are covered in a timely manner. The chairperson of the meeting also needs to conduct the meeting in a results-oriented manner; Potential conflicts must be raised, discussed and debated, but ultimately they must not prevent the achievement of an outcome and action. A facilitator is needed to guide the speakers and ensure that everyone has something to say. Finally, there should be a record keeper to take minutes and note the action items and responsibilities that need to be assigned.
- Follow up – the meeting does not end once it has been adjourned – the follow-up is just as important as the previous stages. Avoid distributing detailed minutes to all participants; instead, summarize important action points and set a timeline to review.
Meetings are a tool and a resource to facilitate your business operations, but like any tool, they need to be mastered. Management development can help your organization operate efficiently and effectively, so your meetings need to be aligned with your ultimate business goals.
