Meetings drive me nuts! Why? Because 90% of the time (made up stat) they are a waste of my time. The information could of been sent in an email that would of taken me 5 minutes to read. That is not to say meetings are bad, there are many times they are needed and the best course of action. As a result, I have put together 7 different tips to run a better, effective, faster, efficient, meeting.
1. Agenda
Basic tip that nearly everyone does but make sure you always have one.
2. Time each item
This helps your meeting run on time. Do not spend time on 1 of 5 items. Move on! Especially if that one item only affects 1 of 10 people at the meeting.
3. Facilitate
Just having an agenda and time will help you facilitate. Make sure everyone can be heard not just the one person that keeps asking questions to take you off topic.
4. No recurring meeting
Have meetings when you actually need to have a meeting. Otherwise its a waste of time.
5. Don’t have a meeting to plan more meetings
Use a calendar. Don’t have a meeting to schedule more.
6. Use email
Have a meeting when you need to have a meeting. Use email or talk 1 on 1 when you can.
7. Stand up
Get rid of chairs. This ensures people will make the meeting fast. This gets rid of those all day meetings that waste everyone’s time. Yea maybe its extreme but I love the idea!
Here is my video which goes into more depth for each tip: