How to Conduct Effective Meetings | 9 Tips to More Efficient Meetings

Want to learn how to conduct more effective meetings? Are the meetings you're invited to always feeling like they're dragging way too long with little substance? In this video, I'm going to go over 9 tips to more efficient meetings.

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0:00 - Introduction to How to Conduct Effective Meetings

1:11 - Tip 1: Have a clear agenda before you enter your meeting.

Everyone hates a meeting that has no gameplan. By having a clear agenda ahead of the meeting, everyone comes in with a baseline understanding of what will be discussed and sorted out in this meeting.

2:23 - Tip 2: Have any relevant and important pre-read and pre-work materials included in your agenda.

Building on that concept of establishing a baseline understanding, you need to include any relevant context that others may not be thinking of ahead of any meeting. The purpose of your meeting should be to make decisions, not to review a presentation everyone else can review on their own time.

4:19 - Tip 3: Send meeting invites at least 24 hours before the meeting occurs.

As much as possible, avoid impromptu meetings. The only potential exception to this is if you work with a team that is highly fluid and regimented. By giving 24 hours you allow enough time to complete the pre-read and digest what is going to be discussed.

4:55 - Tip 4: Set and honor clear time blocks from your meeting agenda.

Aside from not having an agenda, another common offense of ineffective meetings is when the leaders of the meeting do not honor the time of the participants.

If there is too much on your agenda, cut the meeting and move what wasn't discussed to a virtual conversation or a follow on meeting as a next step.

6:29 - Tip 5: Make the decisions needed to be made clear BEFORE the meeting.

In your agenda, it should be clear why things are on the agenda. If you have questions or discussion prompts, you should be including those discussion prompts in your agenda.

7:35 - Tip 6: Have clear assignments for who is saying what and when in your agenda.

There should be clear designation as to who is leading each part of the meeting. Everyone should know what their part is before the meeting begins to save time.

8:18 - Tip 7: Assign a note-taker during your meeting.

It's fine for others to take notes at the same time for their personal accountability, but the purpose of the note-taker is that there is at least one person keeping track of what has been discussed and decided.

9:07 - Tip 8: Make sure everyone knows what they need to do and what the group needs to do leaving the meeting.

Accountability is what ties the knot for effective meetings. Everyone should clearly understand what their part is in helping the team. The team should know of any upcoming deadlines or how to prioritize their work coming out of the meeting.

10:00 - Tip 9: Audit your meetings.

At the end of every week or two, review your meeting notes and look at just what the note taker left for meeting start and end times.

You can typically start identifying patterns among your team and the way meetings run, and you'll most likely realize there is anywhere from 10-30 minutes that can be cut out of your meetings.

11:16 - Two Big Takeaways to Remember:

1. The key to effective meetings starts in what you do before the meeting begins, not in the meeting itself.
2. Meetings need to be meaningful for team members to remain engaged and for good work to be done. This means your meetings need to be intentional, accountable, and professional. Start and end on time, have clear next steps for everyone, and reinforce the Why behind everything.

✍️ COMMENT BELOW:
What are you going to start taking from these tips to start running more effective meetings?

Are you guilty of any of the bad habits I shared about ineffective meetings?

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Disclaimer: Grow with Will does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This video, and the ideas presented in it, are for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice.