Guest Post: Le Guan

Le is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

Before I talk about how to run an effective meeting, it is better to start with discussing what the purpose of a meeting is. I think the main purpose of a meeting, especially in business, is to take actions. It is not to share experience with each other or to feel warm, although these might be important. As a result, the standard of a successful meeting is mainly about what objective you set and how you stick to it.

Before starting a meeting, you should be very clear of what goal to achieve in this meeting. Is it to make a decision, to find possible solutions or to make plans? Anything you talk in a meeting should focus on the objective so that the meeting can process efficiently and everyone in the meeting will have their own accomplishment.

Then the issue comes to the details about how to do actually in a meeting. As a leader or an organizer, you have to use time wisely. So start a meeting on time even if someone has not arrived because he or she will feel shame to do it again. Also, it is always a good idea to set agenda so that you can easily figure out what and when to do next. Rather than free talking, sticking to schedule will save you a lot of time, especially in a large meeting.

In addition, meeting is not a presentation or a dictatorial speaking. What is important is that everyone in the meeting can involve and participate in the topic. As a leader, your job is not to dominate the conversation, but to make sure every participant can get into the discussion and to come up with ideas in a creative way, which beyond individual thought before attending the meeting.

There are also some trivial details that are easy to neglect in the meeting. For example, you need to be well prepared for both the content talking in the meeting and the environment where the meeting is held. A well decorated room will make participants feel comfortable so that they might contribute more in discussion. After the meeting is over, take some time to debrief, and determine what went well and what could have been done better. Evaluate the meeting's effectiveness based on how well you met the objective. This will help you continue to improve your process of running effective meetings.

References: Running Effective Meetings