How to have better

meetings

How to have better meetings The following are guidelines that will help you achieve a better meeting:

1. Define the purpose

2. Develop the agenda

3. Create the ground rules

4. Remember participant guidelines

5. Start and end on time

6. Plan meeting facilities for successful outcome

7. Evaluate the meeting

8. Follow-up on action items

*Apply the guidelines to any internal meeting and any meeting we facilitate with external partners

*Apply the guidelines so they fit the purpose and objectives of the meeting and the needs of the participant

1. Define the Purpose • Identify the purpose of the meeting:

• Educational?

• Strategic?

• Operational?

• Problem solving?

• Identify purpose of each agenda item

• Discussion?

• Decision?

• Brainstorming?

• Information sharing?

• Match agenda items with the meeting’s purpose

2. Develop the Agenda • Developing the agenda

• State the purpose of the meeting

• Determine who needs to be at the meeting

• Define the roles and confirm that people understand their role and are prepared.

• Leader or facilitator: Keep the meeting on track, people on task, summarize decisions

• If you are staffing the leader: make sure agenda is complete, and meet ahead of time to prep the leader

• Participant

• Presenters

• Optional: Timekeeper, Separate facilitator, Presenters

• If you use a person to take notes or a tape recorder state why and what you will do with the information or recording.

• Have an agenda that has topics, purpose, desired outcomes, and follow-up assignments (See template examples)

• Clarify outcomes. What do you want?

• Use verbs to achieve clarity:

• Complete, decide, debrief, finish, agree, coordinate, give feedback

• Remember to send agenda and reading materials in advance of the meeting!

• STOP: Ask yourself, do we really need to meet? If you don’t have a clear purpose or a clearly developed agenda-don’t meet just to meet. Don’t be “a meeting in search of an agenda.”

• Know your audience

• The key to success lies in getting your audience’s attention.

• How do you do this?

• Put yourself in the audience members shoes and ask:

• What does this have to do with me?

• Why do I need to know?

• What do you want me to do?

• What is the bottom line?

• What Makes a “Good” Presentation?

• Begin your presentation with the “So What”: For any given agenda item, the

speaker should be crystal clear on the “So What.”

• If you want engagement, you need to plan ahead – develop questions or

exercises for your audience, and pause points for yourself.

• Know what you want people to do or think after you are done presenting!

3. Create the Ground Rules • You may want to create your own ground rules

• Here are some examples that the majority of state agencies use as

common values and ground rules for regular meetings.

• Listen Actively

• Participate

• No one-on-one sidebar conversations

• Turn off pagers and cell phones

• Start and end on time

• Be present

• Keep an open mind

• Have fun

• Each participant has responsibility for personal progress

• Be willing to ask questions

• Use the Parking Lot for ideas that are not up for discussion today (Someone

should be assigned to follow-up)

• If the meeting is unusual (for example, would require additional

facilitation), consider customized ground rules.

4. Remember Participant Guidelines • Come prepared:

• Review the agenda

• Read any prep materials

• Come prepared to participate

• Listen and try to understand

• Ask questions: “Tell me more”

• Explore minority opinions openly

• Have courage to speak up in a meeting and know when to be quiet

• Pause before responding

• Do not monopolize the conversation

• Hold yourself and others accountable for ground rules

• Stick to the purpose

• Have compassion for others (Hard on issues; soft on person)

• Participants share responsibility with the meeting lead for a “good” meeting outcome.

*If you find yourself in a “bad” or “boring” meeting – Ask yourself, what can I do to make it better?

5. Start and End on Time

• Start a meeting on time

• Plan enough time for each agenda item

• Manage the time allotted for each agenda item

• Consider using a timekeeper

• Allow enough time to close the meeting on time

• Remember to review decisions and assignments

• If you are going to do an after action review or Plus/Delta, leave time

• Respect the participants’ schedules

6. Plan meeting facilities for successful outcome • Arrive early for set up needs

• Assure appropriate lighting and sound systems

• Plan for technical needs and set up/test ahead of time

• Assure the room is really large enough for the number of attendees.

• Remember table set up: • Small group exercises (room for several tables or chairs)

• Class room training (room for writing and participants able to see the instructor)

• Discussion (round or rectangular table set up)

• Can all the participants see the presenter?

• Consider where you sit or stand as a presenter (setting the tone)

• Use visual aids such as video, flip charts, overhead slides

• Use three systems of communication: Visual (sight), auditory (sound), and Kinesthetic (feel)

• For more interaction eliminate large tables or horseshoe arrangements

• For half day or whole day meetings check out the space ahead of time and remember: • Windows

• Enough room to move around

• Remember food/refreshments

• Have enough breaks included in the agenda

• Parking for participants

7. Evaluate the meeting

• There are different ways to evaluate the meeting

• On a scale of 1-5: How did the meeting go for you? (1=low/5=high)

• Plus/Delta: One thing that worked/liked about the meeting; one thing that

you would change or improve about the meeting

• Eric Allenbaugh’s 3 Questions:

• Overall Assessment: On a scale of 0-10, how did this meeting go for you?

• Stretches: What could we have done differently to have made this meeting a

“10?”

• Strengths: What went particularly well?

*If you gather feedback, make sure you use it, and tell people you are

using it.

8. Follow-up on Action Items

• Before the meeting ends, summarize any decisions and/or

assignments: Who will do what by when?

• Define how you will follow-up (another meeting, email, etc.)

How you know when it is a good meeting

• Did people participate?

• Did you follow the agenda for the meeting?

• Did it start and end on time?

• Was the purpose achieved?

• Were follow-up/action items addressed?

• Were different learning styles accommodated (visual vs. audio, handouts)?

• Were the participants clear on their purpose, objectives, expectations, role, and assignments?

• Did participants provide positive comments during/end of the meeting? Ex: “This was a great meeting.”

• Bonus: Participants were engaged and motivated.