Best Practices for Effective Meeting

Success Problem

Meetings often do not produce the desired effect due to errors created by inexperienced manager who leads the discussion.

Impact

Not only the participants become frustrated and consider the meeting a lost time, no mutual agreement nor solution is found.

Recommendation

I do not want to recall here the basic rules such as the appropriate and timely selection of participants, a well-chosen time and place of the meeting, sending the agenda in advance or writing the minutes. I want to touch practical details to help the manager who leads the meeting. 1) Positive approach, inducing a suitable atmosphere through a funny story or small talk. 2) Brief clarification of what is the purpose of the meeting and why it needs to be solved. 3) Providing space for each participant in the meeting - ask for their opinions to become an active member of the discussion. 4) Pleasant guidance of the meeting with respect to every opinion. 5) Visualization of individual inputs from participants in a structured form, e.g. drawing, blocks of solution options, use of color differentiation. 6) Providing feedback - being thankful for each input. 7) Allowing a short break after 50 minutes, preferably after some part of the discussion. 8) Summarizing and getting a solution following an action plan at the end of the meeting.

Category

• Leadership
• Personal Communication
• Result orientation
• Organization & Structures & Processes