All companies and organizations have meetings. This is where ideas are explored, decisions are made, and goals are realized. It is a platform where employees can exchange knowledge, collaborate on projects and discuss strategies. But this is also where time is wasted and frustration arises if the meeting is not conducted in a structured and engaging way. The good meeting management is what separates the effective and productive meetings from the meetings where nothing productive comes out of it.
In a busy world of work, time is a precious resource and inefficient meetings can have a negative impact on productivity and results. Therefore, it is important to understand how best to lead meetings in order to achieve the desired results and maximize the potential of the organization.
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In this blog post, we will explore the key aspects of meeting management and give you practical advice and strategies for creating effective and value-creating meetings.
The role of the meeting manager
The role of a meeting leader is critical to ensuring that meetings are effective and productive. A competent meeting manager is able to create a structured and engaging meeting where participants feel involved, heard and motivated to contribute constructively.
If you have convened the meeting, it will usually be you who will take on the role of meeting leader. So even if you don't necessarily normally deal with managementsSo, you will be responsible for controlling the course of the battle at the meeting. Therefore, it is important that you dare to step into character as a meeting leader. This means, among other things, that you must be willing to ensure good preparation, facilitation, time management and follow-up.
One of the most important things a meeting manager should do is to keep track of time. We have all tried to sit for a meeting that gets delayed or takes time, and it can be downright annoying. Therefore, you can try to establish a meeting culture where meetings start on time. Not 5 or 10 minutes after, because the participants must have picked up their coffee.
It usually gives a good effect to start on the battle rather than waiting for everyone. This sends a clear signal that the content of the meeting is being taken seriously and gives a hint that it is not okay to be late. In addition to being annoying to wait for delayed participants, it is actually also an element that costs the company money. If there are 5-6 people sitting in a meeting and waiting for the last participants for 10 minutes, that is, in total, an hour of work, which is washed out with the sewage.
In addition to ensuring that the meeting starts at the scheduled time, it is also an art to ensure that the meeting does not progress and pass over time. It's important to have respect for people's time, and at the same time, a delay will incidentally signal that there are other aspects of meeting management that you don't quite have a handle on.
In addition to keeping track of time, it is also your responsibility to Facilitate the meetingso that it proceeds according to plan and there is active participation, just as you help guide the discussion towards agreement and help formulate clear and concrete decisions. In this context, it is also important to ensure that decisions are documented and communicated to the relevant parties after the meeting.
An effective meeting manager actually starts work before the meeting itself. thorough preparing It maximizes the opportunity for a productive and productive meeting. It includes, among other things, establishing the purpose and objectives of the meeting, preparing an agenda, and ensuring that the necessary materials and resources are available. The meeting leader should also identify the main topics to be discussed and decide which participants to invite to ensure relevant perspectives.
After the meeting, the meeting leader should ensure that to be followed up on the decisions taken during the meeting. This could include, for example, setting up a follow-up plan, designating responsible parties and setting deadlines for implementing decisions.
4 Tips for Effective Meeting Management
If you are new to the art of effective meeting management, or if you just want to develop as a meeting manager, here are 4 concrete tips on how you can lift your meetings to new and more productive heights. These tips are designed to help you improve your meeting planning, facilitation and follow-up so you can achieve better results and create more positive and productive meetings for your attendees.
- Plan the meeting thoroughly and prepare the participants
A well-structured agenda is the cornerstone of any effective meeting. Start by creating a list of the topics to discuss and establish clear goals for each topic. It allows participants to prepare in advance and have an understanding of what the meeting will cover. For each item on the agenda, you should indicate the overall purpose. This can be, for example, to inform, discuss, decide or come up with new ideas. Defining the purpose helps participants understand what is expected of them during each topic. You can also usefully assign a time frame to each item on the agenda. It helps keep the meeting on track and prevents it from dragging on. Always be realistic about how much time it is necessary to devote to each topic.
For example, an agenda might look something like this:
- Inform: Status of project X, Responsible: MM (10 min)
- Inform: Review weekly KPIs, Applicant: JB (10 min)
- Debating: Possible solutions for recruiting a new team leader, Responsible: JB (20 min)
- Demonstrate: New prodcedure for booking meeting rooms, Responsible: MM (10 min)
- Decision: Set up a project group for the summer party, Ansvalig: MN (15 min)
When selecting participants for the meeting, make sure that they have the right skills and knowledge to contribute constructively to the planned discussions. Consider what skills and perspectives are needed to address the topics on the agenda. At the same time, remember that each participant in the meeting must have a role and contribute actively. Having too many participants can lead to ineffective meetings where some may have nothing meaningful to add. In addition to making the meeting more inefficient, in reality it is also a waste of the person's time. Therefore, invite only those people who can add value to the meeting and the decision-making process. When inviting participants, clearly communicate the purpose of the meeting and the expectations for their participation. If they have to prepare something in advance or bring specific information to the meeting, it must be clearly communicated.
- Facilitate an open and creative dialogue
It is important to encourage all participants to participate actively in the meeting. Therefore, you should try to create an open and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels welcome to contribute. As a meeting leader, you also need to be aware of whether some participants are dominating the conversation, and make sure that others are given the opportunity to participate.
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Among other things, you can try to ask open-ended questions to promote discussion and deepen understanding. You can also summarize important points and decisions along the way to make sure everyone is on the same page. If you still feel that your meetings lack interaction and that the dialogue is not running as well as you would like, try running some brainstorming sessions, silence breaks, peer sharing, etc. along the way in the meeting. These are good, creative processes in which all participants are encouraged to come up with their thoughts without fear of criticism, which can lead to innovative solutions and new perspectives.
If there are more complex topics on the agenda, you can also consider dividing the participants into groups. It allows everyone to contribute actively, and it can foster collaboration and critical thinking. After group discussions, each group can share their ideas with the rest of the group.
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- Keep the meeting on track
As a meeting leader, it is important that you keep the meeting on track. This applies both in relation to the agenda, where you must ensure that the discussions do not run wild and spill over into other topics, as well as you must ensure that too much time is not spent on individual topics so that the schedule progresses. So you may need to be cash and cut through to ensure the most efficient and productive meeting.
If new, interesting items are brought up, make sure that they are temporarily parked in an imaginary parking space and taken up at a later date. You can also structure your agenda so that you get to the most important topics first. If it turns out that the timetable is progressing anyway, I hope you have touched on the most important points.
- Make decisions and follow up on them
Since meetings are held primarily to make decisions, it is important that you agree on what needs to be done and who should do it. Therefore, make sure that at the meeting it is noted who is responsible for carrying out the task, what exactly needs to be done and when it should be done. It may also be a good idea to create an action plan in smaller steps to make the process more manageable.
It is important to align these things with expectations, as otherwise good initiatives can be lost on the meeting table if no one runs with the tasks.
By integrating this advice into your meeting management, you will be able to create more structured, engaging and productive meetings that contribute positively to the goals and success of the organization.
