Why are people always late to my meetings ?

Why do my colleagues rant about the long weekend holidays in the meetings I call ?

Why is it that people cannot make up their minds in my meetings ?

Are meetings supposed to be just a sheer waste of time where people join just to excuse themselves from work ?

How come my cubicle mate got promoted working with the same people who are wasting my meetings ?

Most of us are faced with such questions in our day to day work lives to various degrees. Working effectively in a team and leading people to results is THE quality that drives success in today's work place. This is an era of the team player, the effective people manager is the one who gets it all - name, fame, promotions and not to forget money!

Effectiveness in organizing and driving meetings is crucial to your success. Here are the top tips you need to be successful in organizing and participating in meetings.

1) Clearly define the meeting agenda - Unclear meeting agendas can confuse even the most well meaning colleagues. Having a clearly defined agenda not only helps you get the decisions you want but it also helps the participants in being at their top effectiveness.

For example - You want to call a meeting to discuss about some blogging ideas you came up with and want to decide the top 2.

Agenda -

Brainstorm and vote on the top 2 blogging ideas among -

1.....

2.....

and so on..

2) Invite appropriate stake holders - Meeting to decide on what hardware to purchase for your new server without the purchasing manager may not give you the results you want from the meeting. All the same inviting colleagues who do not have a role to play can unnecessarily take your meeting in directions which you want to avoid. It is a good idea to ask yourself who all are the people impacted by the initiative you are driving. All the impacted people / teams should have appropriate representation. This is one of the important responsibilities of the meeting organizer.

3) Duration of meetings - Human focus and attention is high for 30-45 minutes. Arranging short meetings to get the results you want is ideal. But if a discussion calls for longer meetings like brainstorming on a new business plan, then offer short breaks periodically. If you need to organize a meeting during lunch then it is understood that you will organize for lunch too.

4) Assign action items - There are action items originating out of meetings. Towards the end of the meeting all the action items should be summarized and assigned to appropriate individual / teams. It is ideal if you can get a due date commitment from the people responsible. Telling people clearly what is expected out of them and by when is vital to making progress in the meeting and bringing accountability in the team.

5) Minutes of meeting - Assign a participant to take minutes of meeting. The minutes should contain the list of all meeting participants, the summary of discussion, important decisions taken, action items with person responsible and due dates. Circulate this document among the participants and other stake holders if any. This is vital as after a month or so it is difficult to remember the decisions taken and the reasons behind them. It also helps as you can trace back on how the team progressed to the current situation (good or bad). Written record of meetings drives accountability of actions in the team.

Effective meeting organization and getting the expected results from them is not only a strong measure of your personal effectiveness but also leadership skill.

What are your experiences on this topic and how have you handled the challenges you faced while organizing meetings or working in a team towards a common goal ?

On the lighter side, Checkout the video below..