Team meetings are essential for any business. Apart from being a place for business discussions, meetings are great for promoting teamwork. Though they are crucial, a poorly planned meeting won’t yield the expected outcomes.
Thankfully, there are innovative ways to plan impactful meetings by engaging the attendees in the process. You can plan event in a poll to know their opinions and take votes for the best option. To help you further, here are five secret tips for planning meetings effectively.
- Set an agenda before the meeting.
If you plan to conduct a meeting, make sure you create an agenda and notify everyone about the meeting. Include the objectives of the meeting, what the actions will be, who the attendees are, etc. Mention the time and venue of the meeting too.
It’s also good to mention the team members’ names who will be responsible for reporting on a specific topic. It’s best to include a short description of the topics you will discuss in the meeting.
Some online meeting planning tools allow you to quickly create and share polls that can come in handy if you wish to give your attendees a say in the agenda of your meeting. You can just create a poll, share it with all participants, and set your agenda based on the results.
For instance, during a general review meeting with your team, the priorities and concerns of the management staff may not necessarily be the same as those of the employees. Polls are a great way to identify more pressing issues and prioritize them in meetings.
- Start the meeting on time.
As the agenda mentions the time of the meeting, all invited team members must be present at the venue on time. It is okay to wait for a few minutes to let everyone arrive, but it won’t make sense to waste everyone’s time because someone is late.
Start your meeting on time, follow your schedule and conclude it on time. As the host, you have the right to decide whether to allow or deny the latecomers. Remember, you don’t want to be repeating yourself for each of them.
- Lead the meeting
Leadership plays a vital role in a meeting. Every meeting demands a leader to maintain the flow and lead the attendees towards the objectives of the meeting.
As the host, you are responsible for explaining the goals, giving some context, and planning the actions. You can assign the responsibilities to the concerned people and set the deadlines to ensure greater success.
- Engage the team members
Meetings where only the speaker talks are usually dull, and the attendees may eventually lose interest. An ideal meeting encourages the attendees to contribute their knowledge, suggestions, and ideas on the topic. You can ask questions and ask for suggestions from the attendees.
Some modern tools allow you to plan the event in a poll to get more engagement and insights about the event. For example, a poll taking suggestions for the best venue or time for the meeting can be a great way to include the attendees in the decision-making process. It marginally improves the impact of the meeting.
- Define actions
Before the meeting ends, it’s essential to determine the plan of action. You should assign specific tasks, set the milestones and assign a deadline for each task. Remember to assign the tasks only to qualified members and ask for their inputs too.
There are several useful and free tools to help you plan meetings better, including calendar and reminder tools, online poll creators, presentation tools, etc. The more such tools you are aware of, the more organized and productive your meetings will be.