How to conduct productive meetings?

According to most business analysts, boring and unplanned meetings are nothing more than a waste of time. Conducting boring and unplanned meetings result in unproductive meetings. So, the question is how to conduct a productive meeting?

Here I am going to describe the formula for conducting productive meetings. If you are a business person or team leader, you may need to implement the following tips to get the desired results from a meeting.

What is the purpose of a meeting, and what are the types of meetings?

Before knowing the tips about a productive meeting, you will first need to know about the purpose of the meeting. A meeting mostly conducted among two or more people to discuss business plans, find a solution, team building, information sharing, and a lot of other things.

Now come to the types of meetings. There are six basic types of meetings.

1. Status Update Meetings
2. Decision Making Meetings
3. Information Sharing Meetings
4. Problem Solving Meetings
5. Design & Innovation Discussion Meetings
6. Team Building Meeting

Whatever type of meeting you are going to conduct, with the following tips, you can conduct a productive and result-oriented meeting.

How to plan productive meetings?

Without proper planning, you are unable to conduct productive meetings. So, planning is the basic thing before you are going to invite people for a discussion. Here I am going to describe the key points of planning that result in productive meetings.

Purpose of Meeting

First of all, you will need to make a clear thought about the meeting.

Before you start, make a key point for the meeting. Writing a key point or the purpose of meeting in an agenda plan is the most important thing.

Meetings without a purpose can disturb and frustrate your staff. Make it clear that for what reason you are calling a meeting. It could be an announcement, idea sharing, introduction to some new tools, introduction to new policies, or whatever is the reason, state it on the top of the meeting agenda.

Preparation and Distribution of Agenda

Prepare the complete meeting agenda and distribute it among all attendees before the time of the meeting. According to most industry analysts, the distribution of a meeting agenda before two days of meeting is mandatory. It is important. So, all the participants come to attend the meeting with their valuable thoughts.

How to design a productive meeting according to the audience?

While you are preparing the agenda of a meeting, keep the attendees in your mind. It will help you a lot to address them during the meeting.

Here I am going to describe some useful tips that would be helpful for you to address the attendees.

Start on Time – Keep the value of your and attendees’ time in your mind. Always start meetings on time.

Strict Time Limits – Instead of conducting long meetings, make the duration of meeting time shorter than one hour.

Close to the Point – While addressing attendees, try to stay to the point of the meeting. Never lose your focus from the meeting agenda.

Assign Tasks – Never forget to assign the task to the group leaders at the end of the meeting.

Follow-up Meetings – If you think a follow-up meeting is necessary after the discussion, never forget to call for follow-up meetings. Make sure to announce the date, time, and venue for follow-up meetings.