Don’t Just Meet to Meet to Meet (Wendy Samson and Curt Swenson, 2016)
Have you ever worked for an organization that spent most of their time in meetings? Did this practice negatively or positively affect their production numbers or bottom line? Your answer to this question might be, “It depends.” That’s because you know that there are good meetings, with good meeting facilitators and bad meetings with poor meeting facilitators. Which are you?
FutureSYNC’s research has revealed some of the following best practices for effective meeting facilitation!
Know and Speak Your Purpose – A meeting must have a specific and defined purpose. Before you send that calendar invite, ask yourself: What do I seek to accomplish? Standing meetings with vague purposes, such as “status updates,” are rarely a good use of time.
Start on time, end on time – If you have responsibility for running regular meetings and you have a reputation for being someone who starts and ends promptly, you will be amazed how many of your colleagues will make every effort to attend your meetings. People appreciate it when you understand that their time is valuable. Another note on time: Do not schedule any meeting to last longer than an hour. Sixty minutes is generally the longest time workers can remain truly engaged.
Ban technology – The reality is that if people are allowed to bring their phones and other handhelds into the room, they won’t be focusing on the meeting or contributing to it. Instead, they’ll be emailing, surfing the web, or just playing around with their technology. Nip it in the bud!
Cascading Messaging – It’s quite common for people to come away from the same meeting with very different interpretations of what went on. To reduce this risk, during the last ten minutes, ask the members to identify the decisions made in the meeting and determine what should be communicated to other employees. This process will ensure that everyone is on the same page.
For more information on using your meeting time effectively, contact FutureSYNC International’s consultants at (406) 254-2326.