Seven steps to running effective meetings

How to hold effective meetings

Meetings consume the most number of hours in a typical office workday. Although most employees see them as the only way to prevent miscommunication and resolve issues more efficiently, most employees consider them as a waste of time. According to a survey, meetings ranked as the number one office productivity killer — thats’ why at times everyone in the meeting room keeps complaining about why they are even there. If this happens, maybe your next action is to revisit the supposed “typical” way of your meeting practices and identify the things to improve?

Meetings must have a direction

Meetings must have a direction — it is the paramount rule why your meetings could either end up prolific or not having any output at all. As a leader, your responsibility is to drive a smooth discussion. When heading meetings, you should be able catch important ideas so the team can resort to the most efficient solutions. If conversations are jumbled and are not getting your team anywhere, you should be able to ingest yourself in and reinstate the flow of discussion. If someone is not motivated or not contributing ideas, you should be able to wake them back up. As a meeting leader, you characterize the respectable go-to person and constructive speaker so you should be able to easily resolve problems at all times.

Start by introducing yourself

Get everyone to know your “easy side” by pulling a funny one-liner before starting the seminar. This way, you get everyone interested in your topics, encourage participation and instill thrill throughout the meeting. You might even want to tell a humorous story that relates to the purposes of your meeting just to start things light. Remember that the vibe of your meeting is the result of the first few words you utter as the speaker.

Establish a purpose

To project a clear goal for your meeting, make sure to prepare a well-thought-of agenda. As someone who leads the discussions, you should be able to express what needs to be done or what needs to be resolved. After introducing yourself, briefly summarize the goal of your meeting. An agenda will enable your team to focus their attention rather than jumping to and fro the topics. List them down in bullets so the attendees will know when and how the meeting is going to end. This will also help everyone organize their action items by writing them below each agendum.

You be the boss

In other words, be the leader of the band. Remember that your ultimate goal is to make sure theres’ a drumroll to every idea that you identify as the most impressive. Ask as much question as possible so you can tag everyones’ attention. Mention someone to keep them from checking social media or wake them back up. You will know that you have been a very effective leader if everyone gets motivated (they discuss more sensibly rather than being passive about the topics). The meeting can only be good or bad so make sure you orchestrate the topics more practically. You can even walk an extra mile to request for snacks from your boss, feed a hungry stomach and you will never have another dizzying meeting.

Take note of everything verbatim

Jotting down notes is quite a difficult task especially if your’e writing while talking — but an effective meeting organizer can do that. A highly skilled meeting secretary can even take note of all discussed items word-for-word and associates them to the one who mentioned the solution. This is a better way of noting things down because you can always have a defensible audit trail when the team wants to recall a discussion.

Resolve conflicts

Sometimes a meeting gets heated that it results to a chaotic argument. A team that couldnt’ arrive to a solution, worse divided into two opposite decisions needs a powerful middleman. Practice being the trustworthy meeting leader by weighing which solution is better and constructively discuss the pros and cons of each. This way, your team can unanimously agree on the most concrete solution. However, even as much as you want to resolve conflicts on your own, a worthy call from seniority can be a big help. Conflicts can be prevented if you consider the meeting invitees in the first place.

Meet outside of the office

Access Bird Office website to reserve a meeting room for your team. Your meeting needs do not end within the premises of your office. Sometimes, you need to walk an extra mile to keep teams motivated — bring them to Paris for a more productive brainstorming while at the same time enjoying their free time together as a team. In Bird Office, you have the option to rent affordable meeting rooms in Brussels , complete with amenities, for your workshops and trainings.