Have Clear Meeting Goals

“Start with a stated goal. Have an agenda. Ruthlessly manage time and topics.’’ ~ Larry Bohn

It might seem like common knowledge, but one of the first places that meeting fail is by starting out with no end in sight. Always bring a clear set of goals to every meeting you attend. If you want to have better meetings, you need to have your entire team focused on achieving those goals during the allotted amount of time.

Make Realistic Meeting Goals

A clear goal doesn’t have to reach for the stars, it has to state what is expected at the end of the meeting. If there are decisions that must be made – outline them clearly and be ready to explain why they must be made today. If the meeting is focused on idea generation, keep your team focused on creative thinking, not on critique – that will be the goal of another meeting.

Support Meeting Goals with an Effective Agenda

The Agenda is one of the best ways to both clarify goals, and build a structure that moves the team towards those goals in an efficient manner. That’s why every MeetingSift starts with defining your meeting, creating an agenda. MeetingSift is designed to help you quickly create meetings that will be efficient and effective because they are based on sound meeting principles.

Use your stated goals for the meeting to help you design the most effective agenda possible. If you need to accomplish X before you can move on to Y, structure your agenda so that flow is reflected in your activities. If, for instance, you can’t start choosing colors until you’ve finalized what materials you will be using in your new product, don’t let the conversation get colorful until the necessary discussions and decisions have occurred.

Remember too, short meetings are effective meetings, so don’t try to squeeze too much into a single agenda. Know how to split things up to maximize your teams efforts.