Do you agree?

1. Prepare. Author an agenda and attach appropriate supporting documentation. Share the agenda as early as possible allowing people time to prepare. The agenda must include a goal or desired outcome of the meeting. This keeps everyone focused on the task at hand. Remind everyone of the meeting and preparedness 24 hours prior to the meeting.

2. In-meeting. Stick to your agenda. Manage your speakers (don’t let them dominate the discussion). Avoid ratholes by moving those conversations offline. And most important – TAKE NOTES! Capture all action items, decisions, and major points supporting both. If you don’t do this you’re doomed to repeat the same meeting all over again next week. The meeting facilitator should delegate note taking to two people (one is generally not enough if it’s a large meeting).

3. Post-meeting. Share your results immediately, or as rapidly as possible, with all attendees and other stakeholders. This acts as a reference for duties between meetings (if it’s a recurring meeting), helps maintain the continuity of the group, and lastly, helps you avoid having the same conversation over and over again, which is a common mistake.

- To be short & energizing.

2. What is the biggest mistake you think others make when it comes to participating in a meeting?

- Chairman: long & boring introductory (Get-to-point technique would be convenient),& not taking into account the participants’ workflow & working hours when schedule for meeting planned.

- Participants: not checking out the meeting agendas which would cause off point discussions & subsequently meeting would end up waste of time.

2. To be not on time

Number one on my list is: Keep meetings to 30 minutes or less, at worst, no longer than an 1 hour. Absolutely no more. This is especially true of conference calls. After that time CNN becomes more interesting.

2. What is the biggest mistake you think others make when it comes to participating in a meeting?

The biggest mistake is the caller/leader of the conference call letting the meeting get off topic and allowing side conversations to occur. My time is valuable, at least to me it is. Sometimes, if I could send a bill, I would,

Matt

2. Most people who attend meetings do little or no preparatory work. Some, if they haven’t had the good fortune to have been given a meeting agenda in advance, don’t even know why the meeting has been convened. They make the erroneous assumption that because they know the territory, assuming it’s an organization-centric type of meeting, there’s little or no need to brush up on things and make notes in advance.

Great points all around here.

2. Over-delegation – Don’t delegate what is your decision down to a person who can only say “Well I’ll tell so-and-so (original invitee), we’ll get back to you” in the meeting. Avoidance of repeat meetings means each meeting has to deliver unique value. Stepping stones.