Make your meetings worthwhile
How many meetings have you attended recently? And how many actually achieved their purpose?
Do your meetings not get anywhere? Do people not pay attention - stare into their coffee cups or doodle? I watched someone responding to email on herlaptop the entire time at one recent meeting. But perhaps one reason for that was the meeting: ‘ho hum’ and directionless. Even wasteful.
Here are 9 tips for productive, useful meetings.
1. Make sure you really NEED a meeting.
Never use them for routine announcements or to substitute for action. You won’t achieve anything if people just listen.
Move routine stuff, ‘just so everyone knows’ stuff, status reports, etc. elsewhere, eg, email before the meeting, noticeboard, etc. Keep meetings for issues that really do require discussion, and for delicate or complex announcements.
2. For every meeting, have a written agenda. And don’t have meetings without one.
For example, if you think the ISO Standard says you must have a ‘management review meeting’ then you are on the wrong track.
An ‘agenda’ is just the content for the meeting: a list of the topics planned for discussion, in the order you expect to deal with them. A solid, agreed-uponagenda gives people time to prepare, and helps keep the meeting on track.
3. Allocate time for each agenda item.
If you don't, how will you know if you're running late?
4. Have a chairperson and a recorder. At the meeting, make sure these roles are allocated and agreed. The chair is the person facilitating the meeting, the recorder (or minute-taker) records actions and decisions. Don't try and combine the 2 roles with one person, it rarely works.
5. Before you begin the meeting itself, make the meeting purpose clear.
Review & agree on the agenda. Reviewing the agenda helps achieve shared understanding about what the meeting expects to achieve.
6. Stay with the agreed agenda.
The Chair’s job is to keep the meeting moving forward, and on track. That may include agreeing to ‘park’ an issue or refer it to someone else.
7. Make sure the key decisions & actions are written down: who will do what, and by when.
If the Recorder hasn’t captured any action or decision coming out of a discussion when everyone wants to move on, people almost certainly aren’t clear what was decided – or they won’t be later.
I can’t over-emphasise how important this is. It’s so important, I’ve included an easy template for meeting actions in the DIY ISO 9001 Pack.
8. Be wary of taking silence to mean agreement.
Some people are slower or less inclined to speak up. The person chairing should be explicit, and if necessary,seek specific input from people who have not spoken: ‘Is there agreement on thispoint? Fred, are you OK with it? John? Sue?’ etc. Much better to have disagreement IN the meeting and discuss a thorny topic, than have resistance emerge later.
9. Circulate the actions list (minutes) as soon as possible after the meeting, within 3 days at most, so everyone is clear about what was agreed, and what is to happen.
Jane Bennett
Stop struggling with ISO 9001
© Mapwright Pty Ltd
www.mapwright.com.au
You can get ISO 9001 yourself, without struggle, and without spending a fortune.
** Attention Ezine editors / Site owners **Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site, so long as you leaveall links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.
If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks.
© Mapwright Pty Ltd (+613) 9416 7344
Do your meetings not get anywhere? Do people not pay attention - stare into their coffee cups or doodle? I watched someone responding to email on herlaptop the entire time at one recent meeting. But perhaps one reason for that was the meeting: ‘ho hum’ and directionless. Even wasteful.
Here are 9 tips for productive, useful meetings.
1. Make sure you really NEED a meeting.
Never use them for routine announcements or to substitute for action. You won’t achieve anything if people just listen.
Move routine stuff, ‘just so everyone knows’ stuff, status reports, etc. elsewhere, eg, email before the meeting, noticeboard, etc. Keep meetings for issues that really do require discussion, and for delicate or complex announcements.
2. For every meeting, have a written agenda. And don’t have meetings without one.
For example, if you think the ISO Standard says you must have a ‘management review meeting’ then you are on the wrong track.
An ‘agenda’ is just the content for the meeting: a list of the topics planned for discussion, in the order you expect to deal with them. A solid, agreed-uponagenda gives people time to prepare, and helps keep the meeting on track.
3. Allocate time for each agenda item.
If you don't, how will you know if you're running late?
4. Have a chairperson and a recorder. At the meeting, make sure these roles are allocated and agreed. The chair is the person facilitating the meeting, the recorder (or minute-taker) records actions and decisions. Don't try and combine the 2 roles with one person, it rarely works.
5. Before you begin the meeting itself, make the meeting purpose clear.
Review & agree on the agenda. Reviewing the agenda helps achieve shared understanding about what the meeting expects to achieve.
6. Stay with the agreed agenda.
The Chair’s job is to keep the meeting moving forward, and on track. That may include agreeing to ‘park’ an issue or refer it to someone else.
7. Make sure the key decisions & actions are written down: who will do what, and by when.
If the Recorder hasn’t captured any action or decision coming out of a discussion when everyone wants to move on, people almost certainly aren’t clear what was decided – or they won’t be later.
I can’t over-emphasise how important this is. It’s so important, I’ve included an easy template for meeting actions in the DIY ISO 9001 Pack.
8. Be wary of taking silence to mean agreement.
Some people are slower or less inclined to speak up. The person chairing should be explicit, and if necessary,seek specific input from people who have not spoken: ‘Is there agreement on thispoint? Fred, are you OK with it? John? Sue?’ etc. Much better to have disagreement IN the meeting and discuss a thorny topic, than have resistance emerge later.
9. Circulate the actions list (minutes) as soon as possible after the meeting, within 3 days at most, so everyone is clear about what was agreed, and what is to happen.
Jane Bennett
Stop struggling with ISO 9001
© Mapwright Pty Ltd
www.mapwright.com.au
You can get ISO 9001 yourself, without struggle, and without spending a fortune.
** Attention Ezine editors / Site owners **Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site, so long as you leaveall links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.
If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks.
© Mapwright Pty Ltd (+613) 9416 7344
posted by JaneB at 5:28 PM
