Tips on Meetings
Exercise
Good Meeting Hygiene
Meetings,
meetings, and more meetings! Don't contribute to the dread. Next time you need
to gather people together to advance your project, make sure you do the
following to make your meeting worthwhile:
·
Make sure it's necessary. Before sending out
the invite, ask yourself whether there's another way to move the project
forward. Can you get input via e-mail? Can you gather a sub-group to solve the
current issue?
·
Be clear about the objective. State the purpose of
the meeting in the invite and again at the beginning of the meeting. Be sure to
explain how the meeting will advance the overall project goals.
·
Focus. Just because you have an hour
scheduled, don't take it. Keep the discussion centered and avoid unnecessary
side conversations.
Take
Back 10 Minutes
A
day of back-to-back meetings is exhausting and overwhelming. Running from
meeting to meeting, you leave an inbox full of unanswered emails and
undoubtedly start to run late to your afternoon appointments. Stop the madness
by insisting on 50-minute meetings. What can be done in 60 minutes can easily
be done in 50 with some focus and discipline. Defy the default in your calendar
and send meeting requests that end 10 minutes before the hour. This will allow
you, and everyone else, to take a quick break, check email, and restore some
sanity to your day.
Three
Ways to Encourage Meeting Participation
You
know the drill: A meeting is called to discuss an important issue but only the
usual suspects participate. Everyone else is quiet and their opinions go
unheard. Meaningful contribution is the key to meeting success. Here are three
ways to get more people involved:
·
Don't dominate. This not only gives others less time to
speak up but also conveys that only your ideas are important. Let at least
three people speak before you talk again.
·
Be positive. Demonstrate that all ideas are valuable by
restating important points. Thank people who are usually reticent for their
comments.
·
Ask directly. To get input from everyone, ask each person
for their thoughts. Don't do it in a confrontational way. Try, "Do you
have anything to share?"
Two
Rules for Making Global Meetings Work
With
people spread across locations and time zones, global teams can struggle to run
effective meetings. Distance isn't an excuse for bad meeting etiquette though.
Here are two policies that can make your far-flung team's meeting easier:
·
Share the inconvenience. It's not fair to force a few people in
Delhi to always take the call at 3am local time. Rotate your meeting time so
that everyone shares the burden of an inconvenient time.
·
All together or all separate. The dynamic of a meeting
can be thrown off if some people can see and talk to one another offline. If
one person is separated from the rest, ask everyone to call in from their
desks. This means no one unduly benefits from side conversations or
facial expressions.
Makeover
Your All Staff Meeting
When
executives want to communicate important messages or engage employees, they
hold town hall or all hands meetings. Gathering everyone together is meant to
convey the importance of the topic and get the biggest bang for your
communication buck. Yet, employees often rank these meetings as some of the
least effective. Don't give up on bringing everyone together. Instead, give
your all staff meeting a makeover. Make your message resonate by explaining
what's in it for everyone. Forego the PowerPoint presentation in lieu of a more
personal communication. Make the conversation two-way and engage your people in
a discussion. Lastly, don't hog the stage. Even charismatic leaders can sound
like broken records. Staff often want to hear from others in leadership for a
fresh perspective.
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