Conducting Effective Meetings at DevLink 2010

I’ve sat in a lot of really poorly run meetings. Meetings that didn’t start on time, didn’t end on time, and didn’t accomplish anything. What a waste of time! And time is a precious resource in any organization.

Early in my career, I didn’t think it was my place to try to improve the meetings. Later I assumed it was just the way things worked. Eventually I realized that I was wrong on both accounts. Meetings can and should be better than they are.

So, I actively sought ways to make every meeting better. After much research, trial, and error, I’ve discovered some best practices for conducting meetings. I’ve also learned some things I can do to help improve meetings that I attend but don’t run.

I’m going to share these best practices later this afternoon during a session that I’m giving at devLINK. Here’s a link to the slide deck I’ll use.

Here’s a summary of my best practices:

• Distribute an agenda prior to the meeting. Without an agenda, people won’t know how to prepare ahead of time and the meeting will wander
• Have clearly defined purpose & outcome. Let your attendees know exactly what you expect to accomplish during the meeting.
• Start the meeting with a welcome, an agenda review, introductions, & ground rules. This sets the tone for the rest of the meeting.
• Keep to the agenda. Don’t drift; don’t run over.
• Create and document action items. Make sure everyone leaves the meeting with a clear understanding of who agreed to do what by when.
• Appoint a scribe to take & distribute notes. The notes don’t have to be fancy; just cover the decisions reached and action items assigned.

Questions:

• Have I missed a good practice?
• Are your meetings productive?
• What do you do to make the run smoothly?