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When conducting a staff meeting, how effective do you think your meetings are? Since staff time is a valuable resource, every effort should be made to ensure that meetings are as productive as possible.
Here are some tips to help ensure you have effective meetings with your staff:
1. Set a clear goal for each meeting. What is the purpose of the meeting? What do you want as an ideal result?
2. Distribute appropriate advance material before meetings. By distributing relevant information before a meeting, meeting attendees can be more productive because they have had the opportunity to orient themselves to the material rather than seeing it for the first time in a meeting.
3. Schedule meetings in the morning instead of in the afternoon. Generally, people are more alert and attentive in the morning than in the afternoon. Less has happened during the workday to distract them.
4. For recurring meetings, such as a weekly staff meeting, hold the meeting at the same time and on the same day. Create a basic agenda that can be followed for the recurring meeting.
5. Recap and Summarize: At the end of a meeting, it is helpful to recap the main points of the meeting and summarize the discussion. This helps everyone walk out of a meeting with a better understanding of what was accomplished.
6. Make sure that the appropriate follow-up actions are identified during the meeting and that notes are taken on what needs to be followed. Follow up on when something is expected to be done as a result of the meeting,
7. Involve your staff. To get the attention and cooperation of your staff attending a meeting, some of the things you need to do are:
– Invite employees to suggest topics for meetings
– Encourage employees to actively participate in meetings. Ideal meetings are
interactive where you request and exchange ideas
– Unless absolutely necessary, limit the meeting to no more than 45 minutes. After 45
minutes, you will often lose the attention of your staff
– Assign someone to take notes so that there is an official record of what was said.
let everyone have a written record of the discussion
– Assign clear responsibilities about who has to do what and when based on what is done
discussed in every meeting
– Make the meeting something that the attendees want. For example, bring pizza
once in a while and make it a lunch meeting.
Holding effective meetings can directly affect the efficiency and effectiveness of your staff members. In addition to helping clarify important issues and getting things accomplished in a more timely manner, effective meetings provide a tool for your staff to work as a team focused on the important goals you have outlined for your practice.
If you need help making your meeting more effective, there are many books and Internet resources online to help you have better meetings. Just do a little research and you will soon find that your meetings are more effective and more enjoyable for everyone. Why not start having better meetings today?