Let's be honest - As much as we know that meetings are important and key to communications for everyone, most of us hate attending them. Usually, what goes on at the back of your mind during the meetings are the the pile of documents waiting for you to be settled at your desk to be completed today.
Below are some ways we have put together to ensure that meetings are valuable and productive. This will also make sure that uses every attendee’s time fruitfully.
Start Punctually
Waiting for the latecomers will only mean that you agree and able to accept their late coming. That's a big no no. If the content of the meeting is really important, latecomers will eventually be on time to avoid any inconvenience for others. Of course, the person who have arranged for the meeting has to ensure that the meeting content is worth everyone's time.
Set out a clear agenda
Agenda of meeting should be set out clearly two to three days prior to the meeting and the time needed for each topic should also be indicated. Topics should be as specific as possible so that the presenter may also know the key pointers to share. This will help attendees identify the topics during the meeting. This also gives the presenters a better gauge of time to move forward if they are next in line.
Presentation (Visual & Aural)
While we may think that aural presentation is sufficient to catch the attention of all attendees, we want our content shared during the meeting to be clearly communicated. Presenters must always go into meetings well-prepared with presentation slides, write-ups and figures. More often than not, graphs and images help in shortening meetings when every one of us can comprehend so much faster in seconds.
Everyone to Contribute
Meetings are meant for attendees to contribute their ideas and input suggestions and polls, with regards to the topics presented. Not for people to attend boring presentations. Such session is critical and to ensure that participants are engaged and important decisions are made during the meetings. To be polite, you may want to get allow people voice out non-urgent thoughts after the meetings.