The Dos and Don'ts for high performance meetings

Dos and don'ts for effective meeting management

Meetings are vital to the success of any business. In meetings, decisions are made that contribute to the organisations growth & future. Unfortunately, most meetings are not effectively run. According to a report by Doodle back in 2019, “Nearly two thirds (71%) of professionals lose time every week due to unnecessary or cancelled meetings. More German professionals (74%) reported regularly losing time to poorly organised meetings than those in the UK (72%) or the US (68%)”. 

Since meetings involve the precious time of various people within your organisation, your meetings need to be efficient and purposeful. Whether it is your first or your one hundredth time running a meeting, make sure everything and everyone is fully prepared.

At the end of the day, the meetings that take place in your workplace are the “conversations” of the organisation. So here are some Dos and Don’ts to take your organisations meetings to the next level, at QuickMinutes we want to ensure you are having high performance meetings every single time. 

1. Do set an Agenda 

It is very important you share the agenda prior to your meeting. The agenda allows everyone to prepare fully in advance of getting together. The agenda  indicates what will be discussed, makes sure that a meeting stays on track and that everyone knows what is going to happen next. Without an agenda in place, meetings can easily go off track and in some cases, can become chaotic. As a result, important business may not be completed. How many times have you left a meeting feeling it was a waste of precious time? All good meetings need structure.

2. Don’t be controlling

The best managers and bosses are the ones who don't dominate the whole meeting. Allow other team members to take turns in leading the discussion at times. While it's good to stick  to a defined structure and encourage discipline, don’t be a control freak! Engagement is key to an effective and meaningful meeting. “To have no voice is to be excluded”. Even if it’s not the intention to exclude a colleague from speaking, by not directly asking for that person’s thoughts, the message sent is that you are not interested in his / her opinion.

3. Don’t invite everyone 

While my last point encourages engagement, it is just as important to remember that not everybody is needed at your meetings. With too many participants, you are almost guaranteed to go off track (even with an agenda & structure). You need the right blend of people. Invite too many, and it's hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Invite too few or the wrong people, and you'll have a hard time making important decisions. As a manager or business owner, in order to  maximize your time and productivity, you should  strategically choose people to attend your meeting. Can they bring value to the discussion points? 

4. Do wrap it up on time

As the saying goes, “All good things must come to and end”. Even your most effective meetings must wrap up on time. If you respect people’s time, they will come away feeling that it was a meaningful meeting that had a structure and a purpose, which as a result increases the morale within your organisation. Don’t forget to outline any action points and next steps to be taken. The follow up is one of the most important aspects of your businesses meetings!

5. Do choose QuickMinutes for effective meeting management

QuickMinutes engineer software tools that streamline the administrative and participatory aspects of running and engaging with meetings. QuickMinutes provides key meeting metrics and puts this vital data at your fingertips. 

As a team, QuickMinutes have extensive experience working in both the public and private sectors, some of the world’s largest technology companies and sitting on multiple governing bodies.

QuickMinutes are currently providing meeting management services to several large organizations in Ireland including University College Cork, The HSE, Oberstown Children Detention Campus & The Irish Management Institute.

The QuickMinutes platform centralizes all your meeting materials with the main aim of helping your organisation have “fewer, better & shorter” meetings by adopting the QuickMinutes meeting methodology. 

This article was published by QuickMinutes.com stay tuned for many more articles in the coming weeks on various different aspects of meeting management. If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@quickminutes.com or sign up at QuickMinutes.com to find out how we can help you and your organisation improve the efficiency of your meetings.