Techblog
Run a productive meeting in 3 simple steps
Business meetings are often not well organised. They can go on for way too long, wasting employees’ time and resources. These three tactics will help put an end to ineffective meetings.
Organising a productive meeting is an art in itself. Companies lose a lot of money because of time wasted during meetings. As a small and medium enterprise (SME), you have to make sure your meetings are productive, have a clearly defined purpose and participants know why they’re attending. Here’s how to have a meeting that doesn’t waste anyone’s time or money.
-
Outline the purpose to stay focused
Ask yourself whether the meeting is necessary in the first place.If you don’t know why you’re meeting, it will be very difficult to make it successful. Therefore it is essential to outline the purpose of the meeting and what you’re intending to get out of it. Think about whether you could share your information with your colleagues through a different communication medium, rather than gathering everyone in a room.
-
Use technology to be efficient
A little preparation will go a long way. To make the most of your limited meeting time, prepare as much as possible beforehand and use technology to communicate participants’ roles. Google Drive For Work, for example, is a great way to share the agenda and discussion content in advance, invite contributions and ensure that everyone knows what to prepare.
Google Drive For Work also allows users to easily access and edit work files wherever and whenever they need to, even during the meeting.
Forethought and serious planning will take some time but force the organiser and participants to limit the agenda to the items that are most crucial to everyone.
-
Assign tasks and follow up to have results
It’s important to make a to-do list during the meeting and update everyone on the actions and deadlines afterwards. If there’s no follow-up and post-meeting action then what was the meeting for? Again, Google Drive For Work is a great tool to make sure everyone knows what they need to do.
To avoid wasting time and resources on a meeting:
-
Outline the purpose and what you’re intending to get out of the meeting. Ask yourself whether the meeting is even necessary? Could you share your information through another medium?
-
To make the most of your limited meeting time, prepare as much as possible beforehand and use technology such as Google Drive For Work to share the agenda in advance.
-
Make a to-do list during the meeting and update everyone on the actions and deadlines. Use Google Drive For Work to make communication and collaboration easier.