Competitiveness Part 3

Hold Constructive Meetings

Most of us have to attend meetings. For many the number of meetings we have to attend actually gets in the way of producing anything. In many organisations meetings appear to be called almost to stop you doing anything remotely constructive. The golden rule is, if you really do not need a meeting do not hold one.
 
Here are some pointers on making the meetings you need to have more effective.

Timing

• Make sure you begin and end on time  
• Starting meetings late engenders lax attitudes, demotes the importance of the meeting  
• Makes the other attendees feel that they are unimportant  
• Fosters bad practice  

Purpose

1. Make certain that the meeting has a purpose, nothing de-motivates more than continuously having to attend meetings that do not have direction or purpose  
2. Set an agenda and stick to it  
3. Get rid of any other business if attendees cannot get items in for discussion in time AOB is used to either prolong the meeting or to use it for other purposes  
4. Make sure every item has an Action and someone delegated to perform that action within a specified period of time. If you do not link actions to timescales then they will do it when they feel like.  
5. Make sure everyone has information prepared before the meeting that they may need during the meeting, if they do not know that this is what they have to do you will waste even more time.  
6. Short and effective meetings held at regular intervals are better than long ones held every now and then.  
7. Assign Time Limits to each item on the agenda. If the item is not resolved in the time allotted set another meeting where everyone has to be more up to speed or have more information at hand so as to be able to resolve the issue.  
8. If it is really important and the outcome needs to be achieved by the end of the day then re apportion the agenda.  
9. Finally, do not use meetings to Hold Court far too many managers and leaders hold court at meetings all it does is persuade the attendees that you are a legend - in your own mind.  

Trust those at the meeting

If you cannot be there on time yourself, tell them to start without you, it will make them feel trusted, empowered and show your leadership.

Keep Minutes of the Meetings

Use minutes of a meeting as aide memoirs rather than a factual order of events for which blame can be doled out if things do not happen as you had planned.
 
Some of the best meetings use mind maps with bullet points and action points which are time defined. Keep it simple. Make sure the minutes are distributed as soon as possible after the meeting when aspects are still clear in people minds.
 
Pass out copies of the minutes at the start and get feedback. Do not dwell too long on the events of the previous meeting item by item, better to find out what has not been achieved and make sure actions are rescheduled; then get on with the purpose of the current meeting.

Follow Through

Good leaders or chairmen follow up on the meetings events so that all attendees are aware that they can not just forget actions or to get feedback on issues and to keep topics alive. When you follow up make sure you report back to the group via memo or email so that all are kept informed and feel included rather than excluded.

Motivation