Three Secrets to Better Meetings
Meetings have traits reminiscent of the title of that old Western film: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
- They help us plan, keep us apprised of important developments, and allow us to come together to make important decisions. That's good.
- They can also eat up too much time. That's bad.
- All too often, they don't produce tangible results. That's downright ugly.
Fortunately, it's not hard to fix the bad and the ugly. By taking three simple steps you can:
- Reduce meeting time by 25% or more.
- Get decisions made quickly - with consensus and accountability for results.
- Stop the endless cycle of revisions and follow-up meetings.
Three Steps to Better Meetings
Your meetings will be shorter and more productive if you follow this simple formula.
1. Create a visual agenda ahead of time using a mind map you can edit in real-time. Display it on the conference room projector (or on your screen using an online meeting platform such as GoToMeeting? or WebEx?).
2. Move through the agenda items, noting decisions on the mind map. If action items are needed, decide in the meeting who is responsible. Everyone in the meeting sees the action item assigned. There is no room for different interpretations of action taken and the person assigned the task is publicly accountable for completing it.
3. Upon conclusion of the meeting, distribute the action item document, in a visual format (which becomes the minutes of the meeting), to each attendee by sending them a link.