Deep Dive: Effective Meetings

"Let's have a meeting" often evokes groans. Do something about it.

“I survived another meeting that should have been an email.”

Meetings. For one, they are time-wasters. For another, they mean relationship-building and effective information exchange.

Some days are just filled with meetings from the beginning to the end. It’s 5 pm and you haven’t done anything. Frustrating.

More people you work with = more meetings. And there are eight areas you can tap to have better meetings next week.

It would be best to have an objective, agenda, the right people present and engaged, track of time, action items and agreements, accountability, tools, and tech in order.

Or reconsider what you can do instead of a meeting because they are sometimes not necessary.

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Contents:

1. Purpose and Objectives

2. Create a Structured Agenda

3. Invite the Right People

4. Encourage Participation

5. Time Management

6. Capture and Assign Action Items

7. Follow-up and Accountability

8. Tools and Technology

9. Consider Alternatives

Wrap up

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1. Purpose and Objectives: Cut the Fluff, Find a Focus

The struggle is real: poorly planned, repetitive meetings are a massive drain on time and energy.

It's time to take a hard look at your calendar and cut the dead weight. If a meeting doesn’t have a clear, actionable purpose, it doesn’t belong on your schedule.

Every meeting needs to have a purpose and objectives.

Before scheduling any meeting, ask yourself:

• What is the purpose of this meeting?

• What do we have to meet?

• What are we trying to achieve? Why is it important? How will it help us in this situation/project/with a team?

The purpose can be:

• Brainstorm ideas

• Solve a problem

• Make a decision

• Provide updates

• Feedback on a recent project

• Discuss the next career step

Hack: Label your meetings with tags like "decision-making," "brainstorming," or "information-sharing." This clarity sets the tone and helps participants come prepared and focused.

Use it with your clients, teams, and managers. The purpose ensures clarity and helps everyone be on the same page.

For process lovers and creative souls, a decision tree is another solution for determining a need for a meeting.

Move in steps:

• We have got a negative feedback from a client. Do we need to address it? Yes/No.

• Yes. We address it. Do we need to discuss it? Yes/No

• Yes. We need to discuss it. Do we need a meeting for this discussion? Yes/No

• Yes. Let’s meet.

Sometimes, it is enough to have a thread in your chat and work asynchronously. Other times, get people in and solve it.

2. Create a Structured Agenda: No Agenda, No Attenda

The more you invest in preparing a meeting, the better the outcome.

An agenda is your roadmap. It outlines what topics will be covered, who will present, and how much time is allocated for each discussion point.

I have been impressed with my mum recently. She is on a housing committee and she was able to squeeze the yearly meetings from 2,5 hours to a staggering 45 minutes covering all the points. How? She had an agenda and did not allow any neighbor to derail the meeting.

A well-crafted agenda helps participants prepare, stay on track, and cover all necessary topics within the allotted time.

Time is your enemy. But so are people who talk and talk and talk. You know this one colleague who never manages to stay on the point. You don’t need that.