Ten Ways for Planning Meetings With Muscle 

by Rebecca Shafir

According to the 3M company, we spend an average of about four months a year in meetings. Employees report that about 25% -50% are time wasters. That averages to about 1-2 months of time and salaries OUT THE WINDOW. 

Here are ten ways to make meetings more productive and effective:

1) If you are a regular meeting presenter, be brave and listen to your presentations on tape or video. Do your voice dynamics keep an audience interested? Do you put people asleep? The more dry or technical your topic, the more you need to learn how to use loudness, pitch variety, emphasis and body talk to keep the discussion lively. Seek the consultation of a voice/speech coach. A few sessions with an experienced professional could make all the difference.

2) Decide why you are calling a meeting in the first place. Is it to share or collect information, motivate the troops, problem-solve or make decisions? Sometimes it may mean combining these. Each kind of meeting is a specific thinking process that may not require the whole staff to be present. Certain meetings like brainstorming meetings should be all inclusive. In other words, the collection (bad debt) department may have some interesting insights to share at the sales meetings.

3) State the short and long term objectives of the meetings in action-oriented language. Post it. Distribute it. 

4) Consider the type of meeting space and furniture conducive to the tone of the meeting and its objectives. Sitting on oversized pillows may be perfect for a brainstorming session, whereas a U-shaped table may be more conducive for a problem-solving meeting.

5) Consider the different learning styles of the attendees. Use catchy visuals, mind-maps, metaphors, act out examples of ideal sales interactions, hand out colorful materials with plenty of pens and paper to help attendees understand the material.

6) Keep people on their toes by making the meeting interactive and full of surprises. Invite a mystery guest to encourage attendance. When attendees walk into the room let them pick a number out of a bowl. As the meeting leader, you select a number from a hat of identical numbers and call that number aloud to invite participation, break up into novel groups or to set up challenges between groups Many speakers will speak to your group for free as long as they can use your company’s name for a reference. Contact your local Toastmasters for free or low-cost speakers. 

7) Establish a corporate set of “meeting manners.” These guidelines might include no one speaks for over 30 seconds, 10 minutes of social talk prior to the business discussion, designated timekeepers, etc. Let the group set these guidelines, distribute them and stick to them.

8) Follow up with a specific implementation plan. Make sure people know what they are responsible for, who they can call on for assistance and give them a deadline for reporting back. If you can make all attendees feel like they are on a mission, follow through is more likely to be more enthusiastic, timely and accurate.

9) Make sure you have projected yourself as someone others feel comfortable approaching for details or to re-ask questions. Your job is not to just disseminate information or be the meeting’s traffic cop, but to CONNECT people with the information. This step is an adjunct to step 1.

10) Ask for anonymous feedback. At the end of each meeting, hand out an evaluation form to each attendee to assess the effectiveness of the meeting. Encourage comments whenever possible. You’ll learn lots about your audience and how you can add more muscle to the next meeting.