Your Meeting Survival Kit: Free Templates to Boost Productivity
Phil Jacklin
I lead medium-realisation high-potential teams, profitably, through transformational change and ideally periods of significant growth
We all have meetings. Some more than others. Some more formal than others. When the occasion demands it, we create an agenda for that meeting. We probably circulate notes and actions too. This template helps you do that effectively and productively.
Download the meeting template and the other 6 templates here: www.kinesis.co.nz/ip
The meeting template has 4 points of focus to help you be more effective and productive.
Purpose
Too many meetings are held without a defined purpose or intent. Whilst a purpose may exist, if it is not shared, achievement of that purpose is less likely.
Meetings are more effective when purpose is explicit and shared. It allows people to prepare appropriately. It helps people connect with the context and frame-of-mind necessary to achieve the purpose. Don’t start your meetings without an explicitly communicated purpose.
Attendance
There are many occasions, particularly in regulated industries, where meeting attendance is required to be recorded. Our template records attendance, including over time, and makes it explicit where attendance may be deficient.
Is the one person with a customer voice the one person who is never at your meetings? What is that doing to the effectiveness of decisions made at the meeting? The meeting template helps you spot these trends.
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Pre-Meeting Expectations
Meetings are more effective if attendees have access to shared information that may be useful and relevant to the meeting. Simply making explicit what material people are assumed to be familiar with, before the meeting, can make the meeting more efficient and more likely to deliver on its intended purpose.
I see so many meetings with attachments, but no instructions on whether the attachments are background material, necessary to consume before the meeting, who they are relevant to, or how long they will take to read. Improve your meetings by being explicit and respectful of the time you are asking of people.
Actions
Remember that meeting you were in where you were going through the actions from the last meeting and no one understand what the action meant or why it was recorded? That’s because we record actions without the context that created the action.
These templates record actions alongside the agenda. The additional context helps ‘remind’ what the action was. This improves not only retention, but increases the likelihood that the actions will be completed.
The meeting template and my other 6 templates are all available for free download on my website. You don’t even need to provide your details. If a meeting template isn’t your thing, the other templates currently available are
New templates are being added every week or two depending on available time.