Tips for Sucessful Meetings

When you are scheduling and leading a meeting, make sure you observe these best practices:


Scheduling your meeting:

1) Reserve some time for planning your meeting. Make your meetings really attractive!

2) Decide who must participate, and what kind of contribution you expect from each participant in this meeting.

3) Decide where is the best location, and the best time of the day for your meeting. Also decide the duration of your meeting. Shorter meetings are more effective because you can better keep participants focused. At the end of the day most people are already tired.

4) Invite participants in advance, and make sure they are really available. Make sure they have this meeting scheduled in their calendars.

5) When inviting to your meeting, tell participants the OBJECTIVE(S) OF YOUR MEETING, and WHAT KIND OF CONTRIBUTION do you expect from them.

6) Send in advance the meeting AGENDA to all participants. Make sure you include all needed details such as location, duration of each topic, expected participation on each topic, etc.
Leading your meeting:

- Start your meeting on time, and start off by thanking participants for their attendance.

- At the beginning of your meeting, review the AGENDA, OBJECTIVES, EXPECTED RESULTS and EXPECTED LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION. Don't forget to ask participants if they have any suggestions for changes in the AGENDA you proposed.

- Ask participants about their EXPECTATIONS, and define with them some KEY RULES for this meeting. Register and make these inputs visible during the whole meeting.

- Keep good track of the AGENDA - items, duration etc.

- Avoid any kind of deviation from the meeting's subject, such as side conversations among participants, and any other distraction.

- Promote contributions, and recognize diverse opinions from all participants. Make the most of each talent in this meeting!

- When closing this meeting :
1) Review if the meeting objectives were achieved, rules were followed and if participants' expectations were covered.
2) Review all notes taken during this meeting: ACTION PLANS, IDEAS etc...
3) Discuss the next steps after this meeting: Any communication? should you schedule another meeting?
4)Ask participants about their evaluation of this meeting - What went well ? What could be done better?

- Last but not least ... your concluding words must be: THANK YOU!

Ronaldo Costa Pinto