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Tips for Running Great Meetings

4/28/2021

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Great meetings have some specific characteristics:

they are energetic and discussion is robust;
they are disciplined;
decisions are taken;
people leave the meeting energised and excited to take action; and
they look forward to the next meeting.

In this video, I discuss the following tips for running great meetings:

Start and finish on time.
Reprioritize the agenda.
Agree on how the meeting will be run and engage all participants as collaborators in running the meeting well.
Introduce each agenda item by stating the question to be answered or decision taken (see my previous article and video).
Allow defined time for discussion.
Don't allow participants to ramble, go down rabbit holes or indulge in long stories.
Use a parking lot.
Clearly articulate the decision taken or the answer to the question before moving on.
End the meeting with 3 questions:
- What is each person going to do and by when?
- What did we do well in this meeting?
- What do we want to do better next time?

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Meeting Preparation: Purpose, Participants, Agenda, Preparation

4/15/2021

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Never hold a meeting unless you know what result you want out of the meeting.

Some of my pet peeves about meetings relate to what happens BEFORE the meeting. This is all about preparation.
1. Every meeting must have a clear purpose - especially if it is a meeting that happens regularly. This ensures that the meeting is focused and that we never have meetings on autopilot.
2. The right participants must be involved - again, avoid being mindless about this. There may be people who do not ordinarily attend your meetings who should be invited because they can contribute to the thinking.
3. Prepare a clear agenda that articulated the problems that must be solved or the decisions that must be made.
4. Clearly articulate what preparation participants need to do ahead of the meeting - and give them adequate time to do it.

I discuss this in detail in this video. I hope you find it useful.

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When and When Not to Call a Meeting

4/12/2021

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Having a group of people away from their work and around a meeting table is an expensive business, so it is important to make meeting time count. The purpose of meetings is:

To make decisions that require wide buy-in;
To solve problems that benefit from the application of multiple minds as well as wide commitment to the solution;
To share information where the content of the information might be misconstrued or provoke an emotional response - and you need to manage that.

Using meeting time in order to go through reports line by line is a waste of everyone's time! We should be meeting to discuss what the reports are telling us about the business, solve problems and make decisions about the way forward.

In this video, I discuss when and when not to call a meeting. I hope you find it useful.

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Tips for Running Great Meetings

Meeting Preparation: Purpose, Participants, Agenda, Preparation

When and When Not to Call a Meeting

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