Plan and conduct effective meetings using these guidelines.

The most effective business meeting strategy might be to hold no meeting. Many business meetings are ineffective simply because someone assumed a meeting should be held. Often, meetings lack an agenda, a specified purpose, and objectives other than to discuss a topic or two. So that's what happens. People discuss topics and eventually the meeting winds down with little or nothing really accomplished. These guidelines will help ensure the meetings that are held are effective meetings.

Effective Business Meetings

Meetings are very good choices for some purposes, and very poor for others. Meetings are most effective when:

• The purpose of the meeting is clearly stated in advance
• Objectives are clear, specific, and appropriate to a meeting
• A meeting is the best approach to the objective
• People appropriate to the objective attend

Meeting Planning

The meeting purpose should be stated clearly in an agenda provided well in advance of the meeting date, providing attendees have enough time to arrange to attend and to prepare.

The agenda should also state the meeting's objectives so the right people are prepared and attend.

Decisions

There are two objectives best achieved in a meeting format. One is the need to make a decision that requires the input and participation of several people. An example might be a meeting held to decide whether to bid on a contract involving technologies or skills new to the organization.

Disseminate Complex Information

The second objective best achieved in a meeting is dissemination and discussion of complex new policies or policy changes, especially those that might be controversial. For example, a salary administration policy that changes from cost of living increases to profit sharing is sure to generate fears, questions, and lots of discussion.

Status Reports

Many meetings are held simply to allow staff members to share their accomplishments. This purpose might be better accomplished and more efficiently completed by routing short status reports by email. An exception might be if staff member's work is highly integrated and inter-related. If not, brief status reports will work better.

Meeting Attendees

If the meeting objective is to make a decision, it's important that the people attending have the authority to decide. What if appropriate people can't attend? Postpone the meeting if possible. Otherwise, every decision the group tries to make will be stymied by the absence of some critical participants.

An exception might be if time is a critical factor. This writer had experience with a group that agreed in advance to accept the decision of members who could attend if a decision was required before all could participate. This process worked very well.

Example of a Strong Agenda

Please attend a meeting of the product planning group next Wednesday at 10 am in the conference room. We will meet for one hour and must decide whether to include proposed feature A12 (specs attached) in the scheduled first delivery on August 15th.

Please confirm your attendance. Send a delegate with decision authority if you cannot attend.

Meeting Criteria

Hold a meeting if a decision must be made or complex information must be presented. Don't hold a meeting to simply share status unless the attendees' work is highly integrated and dependent. In advance, send an agenda with purpose, objectives, and meeting duration. Don't forget the logistics of location and start time. If this is a follow-up meeting, include action item reports, with names, in the objectives. Distribute routine information via email or memo.