Planning a Meeting by Mark Rewhorn
Entry Date: 061208Love them or loath them, meetings are a way of life. You can’t live with them, but you can’t get anything done without them. I think we’ve all been to badly organised or badly run meetings; I’d like to present a few thoughts that might just help smooth the flow of the next meeting that you organise.
Plan, plan, and plan again. Treat it like a military operation, plan down to the last detail. Planning will help encourage participation by ensuring that the meeting is focussed on the required topic. Planning means that the attendees, arrive prepared for the meeting. However, this doesn’t mean setting things so rigid that legitimate discourses can’t be taken up.
Planning means ensuring all the materials required (pens, paper, flip-charts, etc.) are all available.
When planning the meeting, think about the following for the main criteria:-
• Notification: Ensure that all required participants are actually notified of the time, date and place of the meeting; especially if this meeting is “out of the ordinary.” Also ensure that the meeting topic or agenda is circulated at an early stage. If you want people to come prepared, let them know the topics. Try not to hold meetings late in the day, or in very difficult to find places.
• The agenda: This is a list of the most important points that the meeting will discuss. Very often this will be structured round any matters arising from the previous meeting, and the allocated tasks.
It helps if the agenda takes a “standard” format. People become familiar with it and know just when they might be expected to take a more active participation in proceedings. Where possible, allocate specific amounts of time for each point under discussion.
Finally, do leave time at the end of the meeting for “any other business”. This allows participants to know that they can raise matters that are perhaps not directly related to the meeting, but are of interest to the team.
About the author:
This article is submitted by Mark Rewhorn, European Business Improvements founder and Contributor. You can reach Mark by clicking the link below:
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