How to Make a Meeting More Effective

OfficePlace is one of the top meeting room and meeting space venues in Connecticut. We have renters that have come from all over the United States to use our meeting space. Because of this, we are witnesses to the meetings that happen in our facility every day. We have picked up some great tips on how to make a meeting more effective. Most of these come from our renters who moderate these meetings on a weekly basis. Read on to learn more about some great tips on how to make a meeting more effective.

Have a meeting agenda prepared ahead of time.

A meeting without an agenda usually ends up being unproductive. Discussions end up being all over the place and the meeting may end with bad decisions that have been made from the disorganization. Preparing a meeting agenda ahead of time alerts everyone to the topics that are going to be discussed and ensures they are properly prepared for engaging other attendees about those topics. If you don’t send the agenda ahead of time, it is a good idea to have copies available at the meeting or to have it displayed on a large screen.

Define a clear purpose for that meeting.

A meeting will only be effective if its purpose and goals are clear. Maybe it’s resolving an employee dispute or maybe it is discussing a company crisis. The goal of the meeting should be to reach a certain outcome and the outcome should be related to that purpose. Try to extend the invitation to only the people involved so it is easier to get to that outcome.

Have fewer meetings but make them better.

Calling a meeting every time there is a small problem may irritate and upset employees. Work on ways to solve these problems other than having suboptimal meetings. Sometimes sending an email is just as good. If there are only a certain number of people involved in the meeting’s purpose, try to just involve them instead of other employees that are not involved in the issue.

Keep smartphones out of the meeting.

People get distracted very easily by their smartphones. It is very hard to compete for the attention of a person who is wrapped up in checking their emails or social media on their smartphone. Research has shown that multitasking with different types of media results in poor information processing, lower performance, and productivity.