organizing successful meetings

Meeting Checklist
Whilst the preparation time for an unscheduled meeting will often be short, the questions that you should ask are essentially the same as for any meeting:
1. What is your main objective?
2. What are your criteria for establishing whether or not the meeting is a success?
3. What is the relationship between you and others at the meeting?
4. What type of participation are you seeking from them?
5. Is any specific preparation needed prior to the meeting?

By applying this checklist before calling an unscheduled meeting, you should be able to clarify what the meeting needs to achieve, who should be involved and how to measure the success of the outcome.

Meeting Reduction Strategy
Take a closer look at the routine meetings that you currently attend. How many of them are really productive? Could you axe some of these meetings, or decide that you personally will not attend? If you attend a specific routine meeting and repeatedly find that your contribution is very small or that your real concern is in making contact with only one or two of the participants, this again may represent an opportunity for using unscheduled meetings.

If you master the use of the unscheduled meeting you could find that you save a lot of time and achieve results far more quickly than by using traditional scheduled meetings. Always take brief notes, however informal the meeting, and clarify who has agreed to do what. The circulation of a memo to all relevant staff, whether or not they attended it is often a good way to communicate the essence of an unscheduled meeting.

Clarifying Meeting Goals
How often do you enter a meeting with a clear idea of what you hope to achieve, what decision should be made or what problem will be solved? This is not the same as a general perception of what the meeting is about. A lot of meetings are called and run on the basis that everybody knows what the goal of the meeting is. Don't assume that this is the case or that you all share a common purpose. Without a clear consensus about the goal of a meeting, the chance of success is minimal.
Generally speaking, the fewer tasks that are undertaken, the more successful the meeting is likely to be.

Setting Measurable Objectives
It is important to set measurable objectives prior to each meeting that you attend, especially if your role is that of chairperson. This gives you something to strive for during the meeting, and you will know when the meeting ends whether or not it has been successful. Some meetings will lend themselves to readily identifiable success criteria whereas others will not, here are some examples:
Sales Meeting - In a final sales meeting where success is measured by getting the written order the criteria for success would be to secure an order. Failure to do so would normally indicate a failed meeting.
Negotiation - You would usually enter a negotiation with a checklist of things you would like to secure from the other side, together with a list of points you would be willing to concede. These represent objective criteria against which the meeting can be assessed.
Presentation Meeting - At a meeting designed to inform, the success criteria could be the amount of information imparted. However, this takes no account of the information that is actually received and understood by the attendees. In reality, this makes objective success criteria very difficult to establish.

If you are able to set measurable objectives, then share them with the meeting group. Set out a route for the meeting with clear milestones and then assess its success in achieving the objectives you set for it. Adopting this approach may convince you that a meeting is not always the right course of action, and you may find yourself calling fewer meetings.

Preparing Your Case
If you are presenting, or supporting, one case against another then you must give careful consideration to the preparation and management of your case. Carry out some background research before a meeting, to help you to make an informed contribution. Sources of information may well include: colleagues who have worked in similar fields, research material and other relevant publications and notes or minutes from previous group meetings. Your research should include finding out whatever you can about the other attendees, for example their views and interests in the areas being discussed.

If your views are likely to meet strong resistance, try to identify your opponents and negotiate a compromise, or at least an understanding, in advance. This way neither party will be undermined in public and the atmosphere at the meeting can be kept far more positive and constructive. Plan the content of any case you will present at a meeting around the message or messages you want to convey, in order to achieve your objective. It is important to keep the focus of your presentation on the message and not on the information and facts that underpin that message. This can be very difficult especially when the message is supported by a multitude of facts that you think the audience should know.

If your presentation does consist of a series of facts and supporting evidence, then the audience is likely to assimilate these and draw their own conclusions. If this happens you will lose the opportunity to influence and shape the audience’s interpretation. It is far more effective to communicate your messages and then support them with an adequate level of facts and information - so that your meeting partners can line them up behind the message you wish to convey.

TOP <PREVIOUS NEXT>