Meetings

Meetings - formal and informal- are central to most organisations. They are part of every manager's life. Meetings mean communication. Why then so many meetings fail its purpose? Can you think of some of the characteristics of unsuccessful meetings: time-consuming, unproductive, boring ...

But meetings in themselves are not an end product. A successful meeting always leads to action. Here are the essentials of an efficient and effective meeting.

1. A purpose: there are two basic purposes for all meetings - problem-solving or idea-generating.

2. An agenda.

3. Members:

the chairman
the secretary;
and the other members

The people in each of these three categories have their own functions and duties.

4. A result

5. A report: usually minutes.

Let us look at some of these points in more detail.

The purpose.
Much can be done to make meetings shorter if people have a clearer objective in mind as to why it was called in the first place. So if calling a meeting is the only solution, then a memo should be circulated several days in advance specifying the time and place, objectives, issues to be discussed, other participants and preparation expected.

The chairman.
Chairing a meeting means to be in control of it. You have to be very sensitive to the way people are reacting to what is going on in the meeting. Perhaps one person is monopolising the meeting. You ought to try to draw out contributions from everyone. Also try to bring people gently and politely back to the point. It is very helpful too if you can clarify and summarise what other people are saying - this is very important if you are taking decisions.

The other participants.
First, you have to be clear what the object of the meeting is, and how you can contribute to it. Secondly, when you do speak, try to do so in a pithy clear way and keep to the point.

The minutes.
As to how important the minutes of a meeting are it depends very much what sort of meeting it is. If it is a formal board meeting, then minutes are statutory and a proper requirement. They should be brief and clear. They should essentially record the decisions that have been reached, including the name of the person delegated to each task and a deadline for its completion. Circulate the minutes after the meeting and again just before the next one.