Guest Post: Rocky Kurien

Rocky is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

In today’s collaborative business environment meetings are of the utmost importance. However it is a fact that the vast majority of professionals have no clue as to how to hold an effective meeting. In fact every one has his/her own experience of having been part of ineffective meetings. This is due to the fact that very few know the nuances of effective meetings. We go into one thinking of it as a discussion and seldom realize the loss of time and money which occurs due to this. Elaborated below are few of the points which need to be kept in mind for every meeting.

1. Don’t Meet: It might sound like a contradiction but most real meetings happen when there is no actual purpose and none of the attendants know why they are there. Meetings involve multiple people and if they are not effective, they waste everyone’s time. The first thing to be kept in mind before calling for a meeting is whether one is actually needed. Any meeting which can be replaced by an email or a notice put up on the board needs to be avoided. Meetings are essential only when an exchange of ideas is required.

2. Agenda: Every meeting needs to have an agenda. All participants need to be aware of the objectives of the meeting. It would be useful to send the agenda out to the participants and get their feedback so that any missed points can be added. Make sure the final agenda is circulated to everyone so that the necessary preparation is done. The agenda is the roadmap to your meeting and needs to include the exact order and priority of the items which need to be discussed as well as the time allotted to each. The leader, as well as the participants of the meeting, needs to strongly keep by this agenda to make the meeting a success.

3. Preparation: Whether you are hosting a meeting or attending one , preparation is extremely important. Meetings are meant to be crisp and short. Everyone cannot be kept waiting if a particular participant needs to catch up. Also maximum and useful contribution can be made only if participants come prepared.

4. People: For a successful meeting only the people who are absolutely responsible should be present- no more and no less. This is a very important point and needs to be kept in mind before deciding on participants. Calling someone who is not related will not only waste his time but will also create unnecessary distractions in the meeting. Similarly, if someone who is required is not present, the meeting may not proceed.

5. Action-Last but not least, every meeting should result in some action. Action points or conclusions need to be drawn and people given responsibilities on what needs to be done. A meeting which does not result in action is a conversation not a meeting.