- How many meetings have you attended in the last four weeks?
- And how many could you have done without?
- How many were actually useful?
- How much time was wasted because the meetings started later?
- And how many took longer than planned?
- Did you receive an agenda with your invitation?
- Was the content always well prepared and presented?
- Was there always a results log?
- And how did the meetings you called go? Were you able to conduct them in a goal-oriented manner?
- Do you keep track of the assigned tasks?
The preparation
Is the meeting necessary?
Meetings are held in all companies to exchange information. Many of these gatherings cost a lot of time and money and don't yield the expected results. Therefore, you should carefully consider beforehand whether a meeting is even necessary. Perhaps it would suffice to distribute information by email, or individual conversations might be much more effective. Alternatively, you could clarify the topics via telephone or video conference. This saves you travel time and costs.The group of participants
Invite only people who can provide important input or expert contributions, or who are necessary for decision-making.Send agenda and information in advance
Sending the meeting agenda along with the invitation allows participants to prepare for the topics in advance. The same applies to files that should be reviewed, so that only the necessary decisions need to be made during the meeting.The schedule
Don't just set the total duration of the meeting; create a schedule for each topic. This will make it easier to limit rambling discussions. A meeting shouldn't last longer than 90 minutes, as participants' attention drops significantly after that.The implementation
The protocol
- At the beginning, designate the person to take the minutes.
- Write a report of the results.
- Use a suitable template for the minutes.
Turn off your cell phones!
Please ask participants to turn off their mobile phones during the meeting so that emails cannot be checked on the side during the meeting and the participants' attention remains on your session.No foil battles!
Carefully consider how you want to present your content. A lengthy and elaborately animated PowerPoint presentation not only requires a lot of preparation time but also usually overwhelms the audience. Therefore, get to the point quickly, keep it concise, and use minimal text on the slides. A picture is often worth a thousand words. And less is more, not just in this case.The follow-up
- Send the report promptly.
- Keep track of distributed tasks.
- Distribute the presentations and accompanying documents shown.
- Send out invitations in good time for the next meeting.
© Meike Kranz