Business, Making Meetings More Effective


by CELIA BALMER - Date: 2009-02-20 - Word Count: 497 Share This!

If there's one aspect of doing business that most professionals tend to hate, it's meetings. Whether they're in-house with staff members or in the field with clients, most meetings are generally just not as productive or as useful as they should be. When you're ready to stop wasting time and make meetings more effective, there are some pointers to keep in mind. With a little preparation and commonsense, time in a conference room or client office can be well spent. To make the most out of meetings and keep participants' attention in the process, keep these tips in mind when planning: Evaluate the real need to meet - Some companies hold meetings simply to do so. Weekly meetings with nothing on the agenda can add up to a big waste of time. Make sure there is a topic to discuss before even setting a date or time. For staff meetings, it can be very useful to use e-mails to see if others have issues they'd like to discuss. This is a great way to gauge if a weekly meeting really needs to be held or skipped. It is okay to skip sessions when there's nothing to discuss. Set an agenda - The best meetings are those that are well planned out with topics of discussion and an agenda to follow. Whilst some fluidity is always necessary, having some talking points and making sure they are hit is important to keep things on track and make the most of the time involved. Use visuals - When they lend themselves to the topics at hand, visuals can be very important for keeping the flow of conversation moving and ensuring understanding is high. Handouts and PowerPoint presentations can be quite useful. If you don't have the skills to put these things together, seek help elsewhere. Whether you use in-house talent or hire a virtual assistant, documentation and presentations can reinforce meeting topics greatly. Keep meetings as short as possible - Marathon meetings are almost never fun and they aren't generally as productive as they should be. Try to keep meetings scheduled for an hour or less to keep attention and participation high. Leave room for open communication - Interaction is essential for a meeting to actually be productive. Unless the reason for the gathering is just to make a single announcement, make sure to build in time for discussion and other items that might need to be brought up by attendees. Meetings don't have to be a waste of time. With a little preparation and planning, it's possible to remove the dread factor from sessions with staff or clients.

Kerry Anne Orr is an author, speaker, virtual assistant and expert in business organisation. She is the founder / owner of Bizpro Ltd, the UK's only franchised virtual assistant business, which specialises in assisting consultants, coaches and trainers with their business. Kerry is also the founder of the Virtual Assistants Club on Ecademy. For more information on Bizpro or Kerry, please contact info@bizpro-ltd.com or visit www.bizpro-ltd.com


Related Tags: meetings, business, virtual assistant, bizpro

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