There’s no doubt about it, meetings are essential to business. Organizations are able to improve communications, generate ideas, solve problems and foster team spirit through good meetings. These benefits to the organization, however, do not come without a cost — the salaries of those in attendance, preparation costs, travel expense, and the cost of materials, facilities and equipment used during the meeting. Helping your employees improve their skills at planning and facilitating meetings can be a direct benefit to your financial performance and level of productivity.

There are basically two types of meetings: informational and problem solving. As you might guess, the purpose of the informational meeting is to coordinate activities, exchange information and perhaps build morale. There is no optimum size for this meeting group. Problem solving meetings on the other hand, are driven by the problem solving process: problem identification, idea generation, evaluation of alternatives, decision making, and development of implementation plans. These meetings require the participation by all attending. Therefore it is suggested the size should be limited to 8-12 persons.

In addition to knowing when a meeting is necessary and for what purpose, other key elements are to determine the length and frequency of the meetings. These are usually determined by the group’s purpose and the number and complexity of the group’s problems. For larger, diverse groups, formal procedures such as Robert’s Rules of Order can be followed to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be heard.

Here are some ideas on a four-step process to meeting management that can help save valuable time, money and resources:

Planning:

• start with a clear statement of objectives
• develop an agenda that supports the desired outcomes
• arrange the agenda so higher priority items are dealt with first
• each agenda item should have a reasonable timeframe for execution
• invite only those who can contribute to the success of the meeting
• arrange for the right environment - quiet, large enough, no distractions

Preparation:

• send out agenda and meeting materials in advance
• follow-up with participants on their roles in the meeting
• suggest participants review previous meeting minutes, complete their assignments, study the upcoming meeting’s agenda and
• prepare materials as needed

Participation:

• practice leadership roles to maintain focus on the task at hand
  
• practice leadership roles that underscore respect for the opinions of others, and solicit ideas and pinions from more reserved members
  
• make meeting interactive - attendees merely sitting and listening will retain only 7-10 percent of the resented information
  
• use humor, color slides, stories, and open-ended questions to mentally and physically involve the articipants in the discussion
  
• allow participants to interact during coffee breaks, lunch and dinner

Meeting Follow-Up:

• recorder should take clear minutes that describe decisions, assignments and due dates
  
• minutes should be reviewed by meeting manager and distributed as soon as possible after the meeting
• all participants have the responsibility to complete their assignments
  
• each meeting manager has a responsibility to follow-up and see that assignments are completed by due dates

The beginning of the year is a good time to focus on improvements - so why not improve the way your eetings are being organized, held and followed up on?

© Debbie King, Evolution Management, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.