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Meeting PDF

This document provides guidelines for planning and facilitating effective meetings. It recommends defining the meeting purpose and developing a clear agenda. It also suggests creating ground rules, starting and ending on time, evaluating the meeting, and following up on action items. Key elements include preparing participants, allowing time for each agenda item, gathering feedback, and ensuring the purpose of the meeting is achieved. Following these guidelines can help meetings run smoothly and productively.

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nurul syakilla nabila
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191 views12 pages

Meeting PDF

This document provides guidelines for planning and facilitating effective meetings. It recommends defining the meeting purpose and developing a clear agenda. It also suggests creating ground rules, starting and ending on time, evaluating the meeting, and following up on action items. Key elements include preparing participants, allowing time for each agenda item, gathering feedback, and ensuring the purpose of the meeting is achieved. Following these guidelines can help meetings run smoothly and productively.

Uploaded by

nurul syakilla nabila
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to have better

meetings

How to have better meetings


The following are guidelines that will help you achieve a better meeting:
1. Define the purpose
2. Develop the agenda
3. Create the ground rules
4. Remember participant guidelines
5. Start and end on time
6. Plan meeting facilities for successful outcome
7. Evaluate the meeting
8. Follow-up on action items

*Apply the guidelines to any internal meeting and any meeting we facilitate with
external partners
*Apply the guidelines so they fit the purpose and objectives of the meeting and the
needs of the participant

1. Define the Purpose


Identify the purpose of the meeting:
Educational?
Strategic?
Operational?
Problem solving?
Identify purpose of each agenda item
Discussion?
Decision?
Brainstorming?
Information sharing?

Match agenda items with the meetings purpose

2. Develop the Agenda

Developing the agenda


State the purpose of the meeting
Determine who needs to be at the meeting
Define the roles and confirm that people understand their role and are prepared.
Leader or facilitator: Keep the meeting on track, people on task, summarize decisions
If you are staffing the leader: make sure agenda is complete, and meet ahead of time
to prep the leader
Participant
Presenters
Optional: Timekeeper, Separate facilitator, Presenters
If you use a person to take notes or a tape recorder state why and what you will do with the
information or recording.
Have an agenda that has topics, purpose, desired outcomes, and follow-up assignments (See
template examples)
Clarify outcomes. What do you want?
Use verbs to achieve clarity:
Complete, decide, debrief, finish, agree, coordinate, give feedback
Remember to send agenda and reading materials in advance of the meeting!
STOP: Ask yourself, do we really need to meet? If you dont have a clear purpose or a clearly
developed agenda-dont meet just to meet. Dont be a meeting in search of an agenda.

Know your audience


The key to success lies in getting your audiences attention.
How do you do this?
Put yourself in the audience members shoes and ask:

What does this have to do with me?


Why do I need to know?
What do you want me to do?
What is the bottom line?

What Makes a Good Presentation?


Begin your presentation with the So What: For any given agenda item, the
speaker should be crystal clear on the So What.

If you want engagement, you need to plan ahead develop questions or


exercises for your audience, and pause points for yourself.
Know what you want people to do or think after you are done presenting!

3. Create the Ground Rules


You may want to create your own ground rules
Here are some examples that the majority of state agencies use as
common values and ground rules for regular meetings.

Listen Actively
Participate
No one-on-one sidebar conversations
Turn off pagers and cell phones
Start and end on time
Be present
Keep an open mind
Have fun
Each participant has responsibility for personal progress
Be willing to ask questions
Use the Parking Lot for ideas that are not up for discussion today (Someone
should be assigned to follow-up)

If the meeting is unusual (for example, would require additional


facilitation), consider customized ground rules.

4. Remember Participant Guidelines

Come prepared:
Review the agenda
Read any prep materials
Come prepared to participate

Listen and try to understand


Ask questions: Tell me more
Explore minority opinions openly
Have courage to speak up in a meeting and know when to be quiet
Pause before responding
Do not monopolize the conversation
Hold yourself and others accountable for ground rules
Stick to the purpose
Have compassion for others (Hard on issues; soft on person)
Participants share responsibility with the meeting lead for a good meeting outcome.

*If you find yourself in a bad or boring meeting Ask yourself, what can I do to make it
better?

5. Start and End on Time


Start a meeting on time
Plan enough time for each agenda item
Manage the time allotted for each agenda item
Consider using a timekeeper

Allow enough time to close the meeting on time


Remember to review decisions and assignments
If you are going to do an after action review or Plus/Delta, leave time
Respect the participants schedules

6. Plan meeting facilities for successful outcome

Arrive early for set up needs


Assure appropriate lighting and sound systems
Plan for technical needs and set up/test ahead of time
Assure the room is really large enough for the number of attendees.
Remember table set up:

Small group exercises (room for several tables or chairs)


Class room training (room for writing and participants able to see the instructor)
Discussion (round or rectangular table set up)
Can all the participants see the presenter?

Consider where you sit or stand as a presenter (setting the tone)


Use visual aids such as video, flip charts, overhead slides
Use three systems of communication: Visual (sight), auditory (sound), and
Kinesthetic (feel)
For more interaction eliminate large tables or horseshoe arrangements
For half day or whole day meetings check out the space ahead of time and
remember:

Windows
Enough room to move around
Remember food/refreshments
Have enough breaks included in the agenda
Parking for participants

7. Evaluate the meeting


There are different ways to evaluate the meeting
On a scale of 1-5: How did the meeting go for you? (1=low/5=high)
Plus/Delta: One thing that worked/liked about the meeting; one thing that
you would change or improve about the meeting
Eric Allenbaughs 3 Questions:
Overall Assessment: On a scale of 0-10, how did this meeting go for you?
Stretches: What could we have done differently to have made this meeting a
10?
Strengths: What went particularly well?

*If you gather feedback, make sure you use it, and tell people you are
using it.

8. Follow-up on Action Items


Before the meeting ends, summarize any decisions and/or
assignments: Who will do what by when?
Define how you will follow-up (another meeting, email, etc.)

How you know when it is a good meeting

Did people participate?

Did you follow the agenda for the meeting?

Did it start and end on time?

Was the purpose achieved?

Were follow-up/action items addressed?

Were different learning styles accommodated (visual vs. audio, handouts)?

Were the participants clear on their purpose, objectives, expectations, role, and
assignments?

Did participants provide positive comments during/end of the meeting? Ex: This was a
great meeting.

Bonus: Participants were engaged and motivated.

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