Helpful Tips:

Logistics:

Distribute Handouts and Agendas:  Have your handouts or agendas distributed in advance of the meeting so participants can review them.

Ensure Electrical Equipment Operates:  If you require a laptop, projector, or telephone equipment, make sure it is up and operating, well before the meeting.

Assign roles:  Designate an individual to document notes and action items through the meeting, a facilitator and a clock watcher. 

Start On Time:  Respect those who showed up on time, kick your meeting off when you designated.

Introduction:

• It is always a good idea to have introductions at the meeting.   Introductions have several benefits:  ensuring the attendees all know one another’s name, stating the attendees for the phone participants and making it easy for whoever is taking notes.
• State the purpose of the meeting.
• Highlight any house rules:  not using cell phones or blackberries during the meeting, sticking to the agenda, not interrupting others are some examples
• Set a positive tone for the meeting.  With comfortable participants, you’ll increase productivity, creativity and ownership.

Establish a Parking Lot:  Carve out a portion of the whiteboard or flip chart and designate it as a “Parking Lot.”  When a topic comes up that is off the agenda or, will not be resolved during the meeting, put the topic on the Parking Lot. You can plan a future meeting with these topics included or, assign them as action items for attendees.

Respect:  Operate with respect during your meeting.  The facilitator should encourage participation from all participants.   If someone starts to get off focus, politely redirect them.

Create an Action Log:  Create a log that documents any actions or assignments.  This log should track the date the action item originated, the owner of the item, and the expected completion date.  Designate time in the meeting to review the Action Log, each owner will update their status. 

Conclusion:   When concluding the meeting, re-cap the action items, the parking lot subjects and a summary of the meeting.  End the meeting on time.

Effective meetings are a wonderful opportunity for idea exchange, collaboration and results.  With simple preparation and strong  facilitation, your meeting will become an essential part of your organization’s productivity.

Contact The Thomson Group for complimentary examples of  Agendas and Action Logs.

One of my favorite ways to pass time is to count the number of  people in the meeting, calculate a rough salary/hour and calculate  the salary expense of the meeting.  If you find yourself doing this, or creating your grocery list, you are the victim of an ineffective meeting. 

The Thomson Group is determined to change the meeting crisis.  Our meeting series will focus on meeting organization, facilitation, participation and communication.

With a few simple guidelines, your meetings will save time, money and increase productivity.

Some ideas on ways to better organize a meeting:

Define the Purpose of the Meeting:  What do you want to accomplish in the meeting? 

• Can you accomplish your goal  through a quick phone call or email?  Have confidence that there is actually a need for the meeting before setting one up.

Create Attendee List:  Think about who is a required attendee vs. an optional attendee.  Too often, we immediately choose the same people to participate in each meeting. 

• Spend some time thinking about who is necessary to participate in the meeting and identify the required participants in the agenda.  If you include optional participants, specify they are optional.   If your colleagues feel like you are respecting their time, you’ll have great success in your participants showing up, and even on time. 

Establish an Agenda:  Establish an agenda, with assigned speakers and allotted amount of time for each subject. 

•  Include past action items so the responsible participants know they are expected to give an update. 
• Determine and document what subjects are presentations vs. what are discussion topics. 
• If this is a recurring meeting, consider asking for agenda topics from the participants. 
• Send the agenda out in advance of the meeting, preferably with the meeting invite.   Ideally, agendas are received no later than 2 days before the meeting.  The expectation is that the participants will review and be ready with their topics or status updates on action items.

Additional Logistics:

• Be congnizant of participants from other time zones.  Try to avoid lunch hours or too early in the morning/evening.
• If in a meeting room, ensure white boards and proper seating are available. 
• Reserve an appropriately sized room, if applicable.
• Bring hard copies of the agenda and handouts, unless otherwise noted in your agenda distribution.
• If a conference call, make sure that the call in number and password are on both the invite and the agenda.
• Remind participants that the meeting will start at the time noted so, be sure to arrive a few minutes early.

With a little preparation before the meeting, you’ll ensure an effective meeting with willing participants. 

Let’s stop the ineffective meeting crisis one meeting at a time.

Please watch for future articles in our effective meeting series.

Though the unemployment rate is expected to increase, I believe that the worst is over and the best is yet to come.  Though so many talented professionals are still pounding the pavement, we’ve seen the reductions in workforce decrease.   There are starting to be rumors of open positions, and most organizations are trying to figure out how they can quickly expand when the economic conditions continue to improve.

For those of you who have gone months, or even years without a position, it’s a mental challenge now to keep focused, confident and motivated.  You may feel like you should spend all of your time looking for a position yet, there’s not enough out there to fill your week.  You feel guilty if you do anything but seek employment and it becomes increasingly awkward to mention that you haven’t found a position yet.  You worry about how you can pay your bills and obsess over stupid past purchases like your fancy purse or flat screen TV in the garage.  I’m a big believer in action plans and, if you don’t have one, I’d highly encourage you develop one.  My next blog will includes some details of setting up an action plan that will allow you to have some perspective and feel the satisfaction of reaching your goals on a daily basis.

In the meantime, though the uneasiness grows, I would encourage you to define how much time you will spend on your job search each day and to create the discipline to enjoy your personal time after you’ve met your time objective.  You WILL find a position, you will feel satisfied again and you will be overworked sooner than you know.  You’ll look back and wish you took advantage of your time off  and didn’t spend the entire time worrying.  Get in shape or, if you have kids, enjoy their after school events or time at the park.  Your kids will treasure your presence and, when you’re working extra hours at a new company to establish yourself, you’ll be comforted in knowing how much quality time you had as a family.

Remember, the recession is over and, though we don’t really see what that means right now, it’s one more milestone reached in recovering from this mess.  Your new career is coming!  Enjoy your break right now and prepare yourself for your next step.

 Wendy Bruno Thomson is the founder of The Thomson Group, a premiere consulting and contracting group established in Chandler, Arizona with expertise available nationally.