01/22/2020

Daily Buzz: Put Together an Effective Internal Meeting

Leaders need to get more creative

A meeting can be a valuable time to strategize and problem solve—or a gigantic waste of resources that produces nothing but frustration. To avoid this, leaders must facilitate internal meetings that matter to all participants.

“Effective meetings have high participation, good energy, constructive collaboration, and meaningful conversations,” writes Mary Abbajay in Forbes. “In short, effective meetings are those which tap into the wisdom, expertise, and energy of the group.”

Leading an effective meeting takes preparation, and the first step is to define the meeting’s purpose. Ask yourself why you are meeting and what you need to accomplish. From there, you can create an agenda that targets your goals and objectives.

When it comes to creating an agenda, the key word is “design,” Abbajay said. Don’t just focus on what to discuss; figure out how to discuss it.

“Creating a meeting that is engaging and productive requires more than simply jotting down a few topic areas,” Abbajay said. “Think of meetings as a series of conversations in which the participants must engage in order to accomplish the purpose.”

You want to generate participation from all meeting attendees, so consider different strategies to get everyone talking.

“Techniques can range from simple ‘round-robins’ where you go around the room and hear from everyone, to pair-shares, to more elaborate conversation structures like SWOT Analysis where participants identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,” Abbajay said.

To keep things on track, create a meeting timeline based on the conversations you intend to facilitate. This will keep your meeting tight, focused and as short as possible.

Please select this link to read the original article from Associations Now.