Want to host better meetings? Here are 5 tips from our community

We’ve all felt the gulf between productive meetings and frustrating slogs from which we come away feeling confused, unmotivated or unsure. Fortunately, there are clear steps you can take to achieve the former and avoid the latter.

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Our community has been sharing some of their top tips for running a successful meeting that will keep your team engaged, informed and ready to work.

1. Set a clear agenda

We have all heard this tip before. Although it seems easy, setting an agenda for a meeting can be a real life-saver when it comes to making a meeting successful. However, remember to leave time for discussion. Sometimes an overfilled agenda can do more to hinder a meeting than help. One of our users told us that they “tend to fill the agenda with the assumption that we are making good use of the time. However, leaving room for dialogue may be more beneficial to the participants.”

2. Make room for everyone

This doesn’t mean inviting a whole department to your meeting, but rather, give everyone involved the space to speak. Too often we hear that in government decisions are made on a top-down basis and don’t take into consideration the feeling, knowledge and experiences of those more junior colleagues. One user stated: “I love the idea of speaking in reverse order of seniority. Senior staff members always dominate meetings and this approach would allow for others to provide their insights on topics and to feel like they are contributing.”

3. Set a goal

Ensuring your meeting has a clear purpose and action points is key for making sure you’ve made the most of your time. Our users said: “Without a vision for the meeting, it isn't likely to produce positive feelings in the participants about what is going to happen next.” We all know that meetings can happen at very short notice, so setting clear goals may not be an easy task. However, setting aside two minutes at the end to talk about what action points everyone is going to take will transform your meeting into a worthwhile use of time.

4. Respect people’s time

Time is something we are all short on, so when planning your meeting make sure that you understand that everyone’s time is precious. Setting out a clear schedule and sticking to it is vital. Everyone will thank you for staying on track, keeping to the time schedule, and making sure the meeting is as productive as possible. If you know that you are not good at keeping an eye on the clock, try asking if anyone could act as a timekeeper for your meeting.

5. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Prior proper planning prevents painfully poor performance. We often find we are too busy to prepare for our meetings, which leads to them being less productive and useful than we would like. Try scheduling time in your calendar before a meeting to read through any agendas, documents or even just prepare your notes. This will really help to make sure you get the most out of your meeting.

Thanks to:

Participants on the Apolitical’s How to master meetings in government course for sharing their top tips for making meetings better for all.

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