Stop Unproductive Meetings and Improve Your Bottom Line

End wasteful, expensive and non-productive meetings forever. If you are looking for ideas to help your company stay competitive in this economy, start making every meeting count.

You know how much time is wasted in unproductive meetings. And you know how much money is wasted in unproductive meetings. Read on to understand how you can apply 7 simple steps to running effective meetings and start running meetings that will increase not decrease your bottom line.

Company meetings, project meetings, team meetings, one-time meetings, on-going meetings, none should be exempt from planning for success. In fact, even impromptu meetings should be productive.

Someone once said "Application is the only evidence of learning."

Start applying these 7 steps to well-run meetings and teach your entire company how to make every meeting count.

In your company ....

-- Is it ok for people to show up late for meetings?
-- Is it ok for people to not show up at all?
-- Is it assumed that the meeting won't be productive?
-- Is it typical that meetings don't have agendas or if they do, they aren't adhered to?
-- Is someone in charge of each meeting to ensure the meeting starts and ends on time?
-- Are notes taken at the meeting distributed in a timely manner?
-- Do people waste a lot of time in unproductive meetings?
-- Does it seem like people spend way too much time in meeting after meeting?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, teaching your team these 7 simple steps to running effective meetings will fundamentally change your company's culture and improve your bottom line.

1. Make sure there is a facilitator
The person in charge of running a meeting is called the facilitator. Their job is to make sure the agenda is followed, the meeting is productive and that the purpose of the meeting is met. This may be the leader or the person who called the meeting, or could be a third party, depends on the size, complexity and length of the meeting. They are also responsible for establishing The Parking Lot -- an effective tool where ideas that come up in a meeting but aren't relevant to that specific topic are captured to be taken care of at another meeting or through work assignments.

2. Plan ahead where possible
There are meetings we can plan in advance and meetings that we have to call at the last minute. Try and avoid the latter. But if a last minute meeting is absolutely necessary, keep it short, be very focused on what the meeting is about and make sure everyone is clear, when they leave, what the meeting accomplished. A poorly planned meeting is a waste of everyone's time.

3. Provide an agenda
An agenda states the time, location, purpose and outcome of the meeting and who will attend the meeting. It should provide specific items to be discussed and who will be responsible for each aspect of the agenda. An agenda should be distributed at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting to allow people to be prepared. The more time you plan ahead, the more likely you are to get the people you need and that those people are prepared.

4. Appoint a time keeper
The time keeper's job is to notify the facilitator at key points during the meeting to keep things running on time. The time keeper only knows what the time constraints are based on a well thought out agenda. If you leave the timing of the meeting up to the facilitator, they will focus on watching the clock rather than running a good meeting. Make sure you cover this detail.

5. Appoint a scribe
The scribe's job is to take notes and distribute them after the meeting. Again, by leaving this critical task up to the facilitator, focus is taken away from the purpose of the meeting. Notes are not as clear as they need to be as the facilitator is too worried about capturing information and not on what's getting done. The scribe needs to know what method to use to distribute them (email, hard copy -- who gets them?) and how soon after the meeting the leader expects them to go out.

6. Start each meeting on time
Don't wait for stragglers. It's their job to be there on time and to catch up (after the meeting is over) with what they missed. How to cure perpetually late meeting interrupters? (If they let you know in advance they were going to be late, that's a different story. I'm talking about people who simply can't get their act together and constantly show disrespect by showing up late to all meetings). Close the door and when they try and come in, don't let them. Tell them they can read the notes from the meeting and let them know you hope they can be on time for the next meeting. Not allowing people to interrupt your meetings by being late will stop if you just lay down some ground rules in advance.

7. End each meeting on time
Make sure the time keeper keeps you posted on where you are with the agenda. Ending a meeting on time will gain you respect as a leader -- showing people that you respect their time. If it looks like you aren't going to get to the entire agenda before the meeting is over, ask for permission from those in attendance to extend the meeting. It's a judgment call on the leader's part as you may lose a lot of people who have other commitments and can't stay. The meeting may not be productive if you lose key people.

8. Distribute the notes of the meeting quickly
Before adjourning, let people know they will be receiving notes from the meeting by a certain date. The scribe should get the notes ready for distribution immediately after the meeting is over. Don't let this critical step in the process negate a productive meeting.

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