How To Run More Effective Meetings
How To Run More Effective Meetings
Time is money. So, why waste both?
If COVID has taught us one thing, it’s to appreciate and make the most of our time spent together. This doesn’t just apply to time spent with loved ones, but with your colleagues as well.
With out new hybrid work schedules, time spent working with your team has just become event more paramount.
This practice is essential for running an effective meeting.
Gone are the days where barking dogs, tech issues or any other excuse can be made for lost meeting time.
Here are some effective ways on how to run more effective meetings.
Be Prepared
It’s always a good idea to let people know the overall details of the meeting but it’s also important to provide relevant documents or information that would help everyone come to your meeting prepared. Sometimes a meeting might require research and for your attendees to have some time to gather their thoughts and ideas. It also cuts down on time spent running people through information that everyone could already be aware of.
Know Your Objective
The biggest mistake people make when calling a meeting is having a poor agenda or not having one at all. Without a good agenda or a facilitator to keep things on track people can go off topic and not add anything of value to the meeting at all. This becomes one of the major reasons why people consider meetings a waste of time.
Make the objective of the meeting clear before you start. That way people are able to come prepared and know what’s necessary to make it successful. With the material you’ve given your attendees, having a clear objective will also allow them to come into the meeting with any concerns they may have going forward, which can be answered easier.
Invite The Right People
Cramming the room with as many people as possible doesn’t always accomplish the best results. The more people you have, the more likely it is that people are going to take the meeting in the wrong direction, be afraid to contribute or feel like they can afford not to pay attention. You might also be keeping a lot of people from doing important work that will end up costing you time and money in lost productivity.
Instead it’s about getting the right people who can contribute the best to your objective. These are the people who are most relevant to the problem at hand, whether they’re working on the front lines or overseeing the team that will be solving a problem. Having the right parties present also lets you communicate more clearly with the right team and ensure that they’re on the right track.
Provide Key Takeaways
It’s all too easy for people to come out of a meeting and go about their day without actually putting anything they’ve learned to use. This comes down to the facilitators. At the end of the meeting, provide your attendees with some key takeaways and goals. Clear tasks help give a purpose to your meeting and people can leave it with something tangible to take back to their desks.
You can also have someone tasked with taking notes during the meeting and putting together a contact report to send out after. This way all attendees have a written record of what needs to get done. This can also be used to track progress for future meetings.
Ineffective meetings can kill productivity and be a waste of time. But with the tips listed above, you can make sure your team can make the most of their time and tackle goals with more direction.
Conclusion
With a favourable vaccination policy and capacity limits now lifted in Toronto, Toronto Meetings is proud to announce that our meeting rooms are back open for business.
These meeting rooms, which range from 2 people all the way up to 60 include:
- High Speed Wi-Fi
- 80″ OLED TVs
- Built-in presentation equipment
- Data networking connections
- Flexible furniture to suit all class formats
- Soundproofed walls
- Adjacent break-out rooms and tandem-use offices
- Full Catering Menu
- Courtesy telephones
- Wall to wall whiteboards
- Flip Charts
With direct access to Union Station via the PATH network, our location makes it easy for you and your guests to arrive at your meeting room without ever stepping outdoors.
Our extensive Catering Menu, which includes both hot and cold meals, will all be singularly packaged and individually labelled to reduce the spread of germs and mitigate the risk of contamination all while presenting delicious selections for all of your guests.
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