EDIDIONG IKPOTO writes on how to run efficient business meetings
Whether you run a sole proprietorship that employs a dozen people or a fortune 500 company with thousands of employees, one vital tool of managing the workforce, setting out company agenda or communicating strategic tactics will be regular meetings. However, if not properly staged, business meetings can quickly veer off course or become a reference point for boredom for your employees.
So, whether you are running point in a boardroom meeting or engaging team mates in a departmental meeting, the following tips will be useful in making sure everyone in the room is not itching to hear the final whistle.
Set a time limit
It goes without saying that participants easily get bored when meetings drag on forever. Because most meetings would usually involve one person doing the talking most of the time, setting a time limit and sticking to that limit is all important. Because you need your employees or team mates to completely digest the information disseminated during the meeting, keeping to time becomes a sine-qua-non as meetings without clearly defined time limits usually produce bored participants who become less interested in the meeting and more interested in enduring towards the finish line.
Always stand
While it is conventional for everyone to take up comfy sitting positions during business meetings; this practice is not always the best as sitting during meetings breed ground for fluff, lack of focus and several other unnecessary detours that drag meeting times longer than necessary.
Traditionally, an average business meeting can be concluded within 20 to 30 minutes, and the likelihood of staying focused on what needs to be said remains considerably high when everyone stands up. Because people are re-energised and more aware of how time is passing, they’re more likely to focus on the task at hand. The increased level of focus is why standing during meetings can often shorten them. If your meetings need a little more focus and a little less meandering, try standing.
Focus on the objective
Every meeting has an objective, or a set of objectives, and it is important for the anchor to focus on these objectives. Jotting out your objectives may be a good idea if you haven’t properly articulated them inside your head. Having a clearly defined objective helps you stay on point and eliminates the risk of making unnecessary detours of repeating points already made.
Focus on the objective also involves moderating your colleagues to stay on the issue at hand during brainstorming sessions.
The Team Lead at GODP Consult, a Lagos-based software development firm, Udeme Edet, in a chat with The PUNCH said that clearly defining the objective of team meetings has cut down meeting time to roughly half one hour.
He said, “We already have tasks on ground. So we just review all the tasks during the meeting. If everybody has done their task, they will just present what they have done. The ones that did not do will discuss their challenges and we’ll resolve it for them. Give or take, it won’t be more than 30 minutes.”
Make your schedule strategic
Determining the right time to fix a meeting can be difficult. On the face of it, a Monday morning seems ideal, but it is also a time employees are catching up with emails doing carryover work. A Friday afternoon does not also sound like a bad idea. However, this is when your employees are busy wrapping up the week and looking forward to the weekend. The key is looking at what hours are most strategic for the workforce, then you can decide what period works best for you.
Engage your colleagues
By default, business meetings are anchored by certain designated leaders within the organisation, and this produces a somewhat performer-audience setting, in which case the anchor is not performing to entertain, but to pass vital information to the rest of the group. Calling business meetings should go beyond creating an avenue to berate the workforce, or make them feel like the scared student in the principal’s office.
The most efficient business meetings take place when your employees are given the platform to brainstorm on issues and also share the tucked in truths affecting their performance levels which they are scared to come forward with.
Use storytelling
In many ways, anchoring a business meeting requires public speaking skills. As said earlier, your colleagues with whom you are meeting make up your audience; so, just like a public speaker whose aim is to drive home a point, you must employ all the useful tricks in the book to keep your audience informed, educated and entertained at the same time.
Also, framing your points with stories help break down complex points. When you tell stories, the images you create through relevant analogies help your teammates picture your point in their mind’s eye. This helps you communicate much more efficiently.
Determine the necessity of the meeting
The last, which in fact should be the first point to consider is whether there is a need to call a meeting in the first place. Every meeting comes with an associated cost with regard to resources, energy and most importantly time. Pulling your employees away from their desk for an unnecessary meeting may altogether have damaging consequences to the firm’s set targets. If your objective can be met through e-mail, conference call, Skype, or even a quick one-on-one discussion, skip the meeting altogether.
