Organizing Effective Meetings: Tips And Strategies

1. What aspects ensure the meeting is appropriate to purpose

2. When and how an individual raise agenda for a meeting

3. Why it is important to request for verbal participation in the meeting

4. Is it important to report the outcomes of the meeting to interested parties

Five Purposes for Holding a Meeting

The purpose of calling the meeting is to implement new business policies to the organization, and it is a matter of fact that in the meeting with the employees, a thorough planning and structuring an effective meeting is also an important reason behind the meeting.

There might be several reasons behind calling a meeting and the most possible reasons behind calling a meeting is disclosed in this section of the portfolio. Giving information to the subordinates or to the other employees is the most important part of calling a meeting. Organization benefits from giving necessary information to the employees and this are certainly an integral part of calling a meeting (Del ChIAPPA 2012).

Officials can call meeting to gather some important information from the employees for the betterment of their performances and general benefit of the organization. Officials gather information regarding new product rollout, present profitability and much other useful information.

Managerial body can call meetings to develop unique ideas that may benefit the organization and they may make sure that the company gets the necessary opportunity to sustain their productivity and profitability (Allen et al.  2014).

At times officials call meetings to make decisions and gathering valuable inputs from the subordinate staffs for the further betterment of the organization.

Apart from all these purposes, sometimes managers call meetings to enhance the intrapersonal bonding within the organization, so that the employees remain loyal towards the organization and by that, the organization can attain the most productivity and profitability.

What might be the best device to reach the outcomes of a particular meeting is the most important part of any meeting. It is seen that meeting can be referred to as one of the important devices for intrapersonal relation building and communication building and it serves in various situations. The management must ensure that the right people are called for the meeting to make it successful, and they must select a reputed person with capability of chairing an important meeting, so that the meeting remains appropriate to the purposes (Raoof and Baumann 2014).

Meetings can be of many kinds and in this section two types of meetings are explained and those are Information sharing meetings and Decision making meetings. The management in Decision making meetings takes vast major business decisions regarding the betterment of the organization. On the other hand, in the Information sharing meetings the management provides necessary information to the subordinates for the general betterment of the organization.

In the organizational meetings, the managers should decide the participants according to the types of the meetings are held. That is in an information-sharing meeting, the directors may call in all the employees of the organization. In decision, making meetings the officials might call in the employees whose feedbacks or inputs might be important for taking any decisions. The participants of the meetings must be assorted in this manner (Raoof and Baumann 2014).   

In many cases, it is seen that the meeting loses its efficacy as various participants of those meetings attend with no preparation. Thus, it is important that an effective agenda is set way before the time of the meeting, so that the participants get the best outcome from the meeting.

Two Various Types of Meetings

Scheduling a meeting is a very important part of the meeting to make it successful. Identifying the key people who has to attend the meeting is the most important task for the organizers. They should notify them with the time and location of the meeting and when the optimal date and time gets fixed then the organizers decide the location. When something goes out of the hands or whenever anything needs to be discussed with the employees, the organizers can schedule a meeting.

Deciding the venue of the meeting is a very important part. After the time and date gets fixed and the participants agree to that, the organizers must look for a venue that is would be most suited by the participants. As the participants need to be flexible with the location for the meeting to be highly successful.

After the meeting gets over, the organizers provide the necessary information regarding the meeting to all the participants and they can provide it by e-mail or provide hard copy of documents. It is a matter of fact that, this information has a long lasting effect and it enhances the possible success of the meeting (Hurst and Nespoli 2016).

Initially if the individuals are not a part of a task that is the focal point of the meeting, they might be absent for the meeting and that would not cause any harm. On the other hand, if any individuals, who are efficient and if the results of the meetings are forwarded to them and they can act accordingly, that would not affect the general productivity of the meeting.

For a meeting to get successful, ten basic things are required, and those are mentioned in this part.

• The organizers should be clear to themselves regarding what purpose they are calling a meeting (Raoof and Baumann 2014).
• The organizers must know that what their expectations from the meeting are.
• The organizers must inform the participants regarding the important information regarding the meeting.
• The organizers must employ someone they trust, to speak or chair the meeting.
• The organizers must establish the rules and regulations for the meeting, as it is one of the most important tasks to do.
• The organizers must keep it in mind that they need to start the meeting on time and then they might end it a bit early, but the commencement of the meeting must be on time, to maintain the importance of the meeting.
• The focus of the meeting must be maintained at any cost, to ensure that the meeting reaches its purpose without fail and the organizers would thus expect full productivity of the meeting.
• Assigning the action items at the end of the meeting is important. For an example, in some cases a participant agrees to the action item, in other cases it is seen, individuals have to assign someone on the location of the meeting for the action item.
• It is seen that the power of the meeting rests in the action item, and the long-term effectiveness of the meeting can be achieved by the verification of the agreements during the course of discussion (Hurst and Nespoli 2016).
• During a meeting their might be some cases where some participants get negative responses, and if they do not follow up after the meeting, things can get worse. Thus, the organizers must follow up with the participants after the meeting to get the best results.

Chairing a meeting is a key role for a meeting to get successful. It is a matter of fact that the chairperson must make it sure that the management committee should function properly and a full participation of the members must prevail in the meeting. He must also make it sure that, all the issues are discussed in the meeting making it successful (Svennevig 2012).

The meeting should commence on time, and at the time of meeting, the chairperson must make it sure that time management is done with efficiencies, as it is a fact that all the issues must be dealt with in the allocated time of the meeting, to make the meeting successful. Else, the meeting would lose its importance and the productivity would not be present.

Preparing an agenda for the meeting is one of the most important task of the organizers, and they should pay attention in doing so. In this section, five factors while preparing an agenda are discussed.

• The organizers must gather items for agenda.
• The organizers must consider the needs of the employees or the members of the meeting.
• The organizers should assemble the agenda items with responsibility.
• The organizers must keep in mind that their prepared agendas will be dealt with in the allocated time of the meeting.
• The organizers must concentrate on the approach of their agendas. Each agenda requires a different type of approach in the meeting for the best results (Svennevig 2012).

In a meeting where all the members participate proactively, the meeting gets successful. Thus, it is important to encourage all the members to take part in the meeting. The reasons are provided below.

• Speaking in a group in a meeting adds value to the agendas they are speaking of in a meeting.
• The participation correlates to commitment. When individuals participate in a conversation within a meeting, their relationship towards the issue gets deeper and that becomes more authentic towards the organizers of the meeting. That results in solving the issue more quickly (Raoof and Baumann 2014).
• Individuals in a meeting has unique perspectives, and thus if the share their valuable inputs, the chances of the meeting to get successful gets enhanced (Svennevig 2012).
• If the members do not raise their voices on the meeting, they would not be given enough importance and eventually their agendas might get dumped in the course of action. Thus, all the members should take part in the meeting proactively.
• Finally, when a good conversation occurs, it may be seen as a back-and-forth experience. A few individuals do not at all dominate it and it is inclusive and must be inviting to all the members (Hurst and Nespoli 2016).

In many cases, managers share new information in a meeting and ask for feedbacks from the employees. In that case, if the employees do not step up, the manager would remain in confusion that what might be the best solution to keep the employees happy. Proactive participation of the employees is thus a much needed thing in any meeting.

• Individuals want to add value. Thus speaking in groups is considered as a powerful way to add value to the agenda in a meeting.
• The participation correlates to engagement. When individuals participate in a dialogue, their relation towards the agenda deepens and emerges as more authentic.
• Each individual have unique inputs that may be valuable for the organizations.
• When any good conversation occurs, it can be seen as a back-and-forth experience. A few individuals do not at all dominate it and it is inclusive and inviting to each individual (Del ChIAPPA 2012).

On the Purpose of the Meeting, Who Can Be Possible Participants

A meeting note can answer the important things those were discussed in the meeting. It is seen that generally the meeting notes can provide answers to the direct questions. Such as, the agendas of the meeting, the time taken in the meeting procedure, the participation of the employees in the meeting, whether the meeting was successful or not, how the participants accepted the outcomes of the meeting, the brief summary of the speech given by the chairperson and many more.

In the heading of a meeting note, the name of the committee, date, venue of the meeting and the time of commencement of the meeting must be included (Manu, Annan and Tibu 2015).

The individuals must look at some specific things in the meeting note before distributing, and those are mentioned in this part. The individuals should check whether the goal of the meeting is mentioned. Then they should check whether the name of the participants of the meeting and the record of the time of commencement of the meeting is mentioned. Apart from that, they must check whether all the details of the outcomes and agendas of the meeting are mentioned in the meeting notes or not.

The participants, who attend the meeting, must possess these kinds of meeting notes where every detail regarding the meeting would be present for the betterment of the organization. It is a matter of fact, that based on these meeting notes many individuals take further actions within the workplace for betterment.

Record keeping allows an organization to document and retrieve information when it needed most and these notes can be used for purposes like reporting, monitoring, reviewing and many more.

The meeting notes must be store in a place where it would be easily accessible and the notes must not be destroyed at any circumstances. The meeting notes must be kept safely so that no individuals misuse them. Finally these notes must be copied so that if it gets misplaced by any chance, the organization would not have to suffer (Hurst and Nespoli 2016).

The copies of meeting notes and the outcomes of the meetings must be provided to the interested parties to enhance the success of the meeting. If the participants ask for a copy of the outcomes of the meeting, then it is an indication of the success of the meeting.

Conducting effective meetings help to clear the doubts or concerns of individuals as well as the management of the organization. Successful meetings generally help a lot in enhancing the general productivity and profitability for the organization. This is a matter of fact that the increase in productivity and profitability is the indication of a good leadership management. Thus, rightly successful meetings are crucial for the success of a leadership management (Manu, Annan and Tibu 2015).

Conclusion

Thus to conclude, it can be said that meeting is a very important part of running a business and individuals must keep in mind that they must try hard to make the meetings successful for the betterment of the organization and the relation between the managerial body and the employees.

References

Hurst, A. and Nespoli, O.G., 2016. Student Perceptions of Value of Peer and Instructor Feedback in Capstone Design Review Meetings. In Proceedings of the 2016 Capstone Conference, Columbus, Ohio.

Manu, I.Y., Annan, E. and Tibu, G.A., 2015. Essentials of Corporate Meetings: The Case of Senior Members of the Registrar’s Department, University of Education, Winneba–Ghana. Journal of Educational Policy and Entrepreneurial Research, 2(10), pp.43-57.

Del ChIAPPA, G., 2012. How do meeting organizers choose convention sites based on different types of meetings? An empirical analysis of the Italian meetings industry. Event Management, 16(2), pp.157-170.

Raoof, S. and Baumann, M.H., 2014. An official multi-society statement: ventilator-ssociated events: the new definition. CHEST Journal, 145(1), pp.10-12.

Svennevig, J., 2012. Interaction in workplace meetings. Discourse studies, 14(1), pp.3-10.

Allen, J., Beck, T., W. Scott, C. and G. Rogelberg, S., 2014. Understanding workplace meetings: A qualitative taxonomy of meeting purposes. Management Research Review, 37(9), pp.791-814.