How to Run a Highly Efficient and Effective Meeting

Business leaders today are "meeting-ed" to death. Meetings are essential, but they hamper productivity. Finding the balance between group participation and high productivity will help you create a high-performance team.

Here are some tips to help you run an effective and efficient meeting.

Cancel the Meeting -- Too many times we have meetings for the sake of meetings. Many projects can be run effectively using e-mails and telephones. Have a more complicated project, consider a wiki. Only hold a meeting when a project can't move forward without one.

Prepare an Agenda -- An agenda helps to pace a meeting. Create a brief outline, preferably on one page. Provide necessary details, and if possible, leave space for notetaking. Make the copies before the meeting starts. Nothing is worse than spending the first 10 minutes of the meeting waiting for copies.

Start on time, end on time -- Make it clear that the meeting has a definite starting and stopping point. Officially starting a meeting at 10:10 and ending at 10:25 is better than 10-ish to 10:30-ish.

Close the door -- When the meeting is supposed to start, close the door. Latecomers will be less likely to show up late if the door is closed at a specific time. If it's still a problem, lock the door at the meeting start time, forcing them to knock. For serious issues, deny access to latecomers.

Assign a timekeeper -- Assign one person to watch the clock, and keep the pace moving.

Stand up -- Hold meetings in a hallway, or at water cooler. Meetings where everyone must stand are usually over very quickly. You can also hold meetings while walking. Tell everyone that your next lunch meeting will be on the way to the restaurant. You'll have a definite timeframe.

Invite as few people as possible -- Every person in a meeting should be able to contribute or learn from the topic. Nobody should be in a meeting that isn't giving or receiving value.

Question the agenda -- Create an agenda made up entirely of questions. Answer the questions, and the meeting is over. Rather than discussions, you get answers.

Avoid food, or hold it till the end -- If you must provide food, use it as an incentive to accomplish the task rather than as an incentive to show up. For long meetings, avoid foods high in sugar.

Hold social meetings -- Some people need to socialize and attend meetings to get their daily fix. Create other meetings that socialization is acceptable. Have the lighthearted lunches occasionally, and you will be more focused on business for other meetings.

Summarize, twice -- After each meeting provide participants with a brief summary. If the meeting is part of a regular series, provide new copies of the summary at the beginning of the next meeting. This prevents wasted time revisiting old topics unnecessarily.

Hold a teleconference -- Some meetings are very effective by telephone or via the web. Invest some time to learn the technology and you'll save that time down the road. This is especially true of meetings where people need to commute to attend. There are many simple and free technologies available.

Even using one or two of these tips will help you create a highly efficient meeting. Building high-performance team is essential in today's business environment, if you are spending more time in meetings than in business.

About the Author:

Jason Tweed is CEO of Tweed Net Marketing, a website marketing consultancy. His company uses various technologies to hold highly effective meetings across the country, while he sits comfortably in front of his computer.

To learn more about Web-Centric Marketing™, contact Jason at 215-541-5382.