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10 Tips For Running Productive Meetings - a person's arm holding a pen resting on an office desk preparing to run a business meeting
10 Tips For Running Productive Meetings

Effective meetings foster better communication, clearer decision-making, and stronger team collaboration.

In today’s fast-paced work environment, meetings are a crucial tool for collaboration and decision-making. However, without proper planning and execution, they can quickly become unproductive and frustrating. By implementing a few strategic practices, you can transform your meetings into powerful sessions that drive results and keep your team engaged. Here are ten essential tips to help you run productive meetings and efficiently too.

10 Essential tips for running productive meetings

1.   Set a Clear Agenda: Outline the topics to be discussed and share the agenda with participants in advance. Sharing it ahead of time ensures everyone knows what to expect and can come prepared with relevant information or questions. Include time allocations for each agenda item to help keep the meeting on track. 

2.  Define Objectives: Clearly state the purpose of the meeting and be clear about the desired outcomes. This ensures everyone understands the goals and works towards them helping the meeting stay on topic and on time.

3.  Invite the Right People: Only include participants who are necessary for the discussion and decision-making. Don’t waste anyone’s time – if someone’s input is only needed for a specific part of the meeting, consider inviting them just for that segment. Participants are more likely to be engaged when they know their presence is essential and valued. With the right people in the room decisions can be made more quickly. You’ll also reduce meeting fatigue and ease any pressure on people’s diaries.

4.  Start and End on Time: Respect that everyone’s time is valuable and start and end the meeting as scheduled. This demonstrates professionalism and keeps participants engaged. It also sets the precedent for future meetings. Send reminders about the meeting start time and ensure all technical setups are completed beforehand to avoid delays.

5.  Assign Roles: Designating a facilitator to guide the discussion, a timekeeper to monitor the schedule, and a note-taker to record key points and decisions helps the meeting run smoothly and ensures all important aspects are covered. Rotating these roles among team members helps build skills and keep everyone engaged.

6.  Encourage Participation: Create an inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing. Use techniques like round-robin or brainstorming to gather diverse input. You can also use icebreakers or small group discussions to encourage participation from quieter members. If it’s going to be a particularly challenging meeting, consider using an experienced external facilitator for additional objectivity and a broader toolkit of supporting techniques and materials.

7.  Stay on Topic: Keep the discussion aligned with the agenda. If new issues arise, note them for future meetings to avoid derailing the current discussion. Use a “car park” to capture off-topic ideas and address them later.

8.  Use Visual Aids: Utilise slides, charts, or other visual aids to clarify points and keep participants engaged. Visuals can help illustrate complex ideas more effectively. For example, we frequently use our resident Rich Picture Artist or our Graphic Meeting Recorder to capture meeting details and create compelling visuals – particularly when the meeting is about creating a vision, or getting to the nub of a gritty issue.

9.  Summarise and Assign Action Items: At the end of the meeting, summarise key decisions and assign action items with clear deadlines. This ensures accountability and follow-through. Use a template for action items to ensure consistency and clarity.

10.  Follow Up: Send out a summary of action items promptly clearly including Who, What, and By When for each action. This reinforces what was discussed and keeps everyone on track. If you’re holding your meeting on-line there are some great supporting tools which will record, transcribe, summarise and generate an action list for you. If keeping momentum going is critical, try scheduling a brief follow-up meeting or check-in to review progress on action items.

Transform your team’s efficiency with productive meetings

Unlock your team’s full potential by mastering the art of productive meetings. By implementing these ten essential tips, you can ensure that every meeting is a valuable use of time, fostering better communication, clearer decision-making, and stronger collaboration. Transform your meetings into powerful tools that drive efficiency and success for your entire team.

Bonus tips

1.  Prepare in Advance

Anticipate potential issues by preparing in advance. Know your participants and be aware of any potential conflicts or sensitive topics. Have a plan for how to handle specific difficult behaviours.

2.  Use Technology Wisely

Utilise meeting tools that can help manage participation, such as mute functions in virtual meetings or hand-raising features. Familiarise yourself with these tools before the meeting to use them effectively.

3.  Follow Up Individually

After the meeting, follow up with difficult participants individually to address any unresolved issues and to provide feedback. Use this opportunity to build rapport and understand their perspective better.

John Moss
Email: johnmoss@jaconsulting.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmoss1

About John Moss – John’s extensive background in sales, marketing and general management has been followed by three decades in management consultancy. John is fiercely committed to helping individuals and businesses grow and succeed; his talent for spotting what needs to be done, his tenacity for making sure things then happen, his commitment to growing long-term business relationships and his ability to impart that knowledge to other people make him an inspirational consultant, leader and coach.

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And a final thought

If you encounter specific challenges or need further assistance in optimising your meetings, don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can create a meeting culture that enhances productivity and drives success. To find out more, talk to us or email me at johnmoss@jaconsulting.co.uk

If you have any questions, our team is ready to help. Contact us….

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