Joanna James
Ineffective meetings in the world of business have been ubiquitous since the beginning of time and are here to stay, pretty much indefinitely. Nevertheless, the rules, or rather guidelines, for running effective meetings are the farthest things from groundbreaking and could be adopted by any.
“No purpose, no meeting”, is a golden rule every business person should live by. The amount of time and money spent on unnecessary meetings that just could’ve been an email or a simple teleconference is downright absurd. Red tape, which, thankfully, more and more organisations are now keen on scaling down, has caused us to hold meetings involuntarily for just about everything. Before you go drilling into tips and strategies for running effective meetings, it would be worthwhile to get your purpose and objective straight to determine if a meeting is really needed in the first place.
Having a solid purpose and objective down means that you are on the path to a productive and effective meeting. However, that alone is simply not going to cut it. A thorough agenda is pivotal in taking the meeting towards the determined objective and also in ensuring that you are making the most of the time allotted. It acts as a compass, if you will, keeping everyone on track and curbing from wandering off course. Having a rigorous agenda in place would be fruitless if it isn’t communicated with the participants of the meeting as well.
Nothing’s more awful than you rushing to be right on time for a meeting only to wait until the boss shows up. Regardless of whether people in positions of power are actually busy or there’s a “thrill” in keeping people waiting for you, the loss of energy in the room is dreadful and the meeting is off to a rocky start. While starting on time, which might not always be followed through, is certainly top of mind, ending meetings on time is just as important.
A meeting that remains just a meeting, with its content not being put into action, will be for nought. To ensure a meeting is genuinely valuable, it should contain actionable content that can be transformed into a series of concrete steps, culminating in a well-defined action plan. The last few minutes of the meeting should be dedicated to discussing the steps subsequent to the meeting, what, when, how and when it will be done.
It could be a real change of scenery for the mind and soul to consider a place outside the everyday office - hotels, meeting rooms, and specifically one of the finest properties offered by popular chains such as Avani Hotels & Resorts - to get the creative juices flowing.
A true believer that the pen is a mighty weapon, ventures into reaching the minds of every reader with the earnest hope of leaving an indelible stream of thought.
A travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.
