Following up after meeting

By the end of meeting, meeting holder briefs those agreed decision in the meeting, lists down action items,  identifies action owners, and aligns the deadline of completion.  Most of the work has already been done by the time the meeting is over. But there are some crucial things left to do that can reinforce what you achieved or quickly help undo it.

 

Distribute meeting minutes

·         Time.  Write the meeting minutes as soon as possible after the meeting, when everything is still fresh in mind. One or two days will be perfect.

·         Elements. Meeting minutes should be highly summarized and brief instead of detail recording. There are five key elements including:

1.       Heading. Company name, date, location, and time of meeting starting and ending

2.       Attendee. Name of person conducting the meeting; job title or department for internal meeting; job title with company name for external meeting

3.       Outcome. Decision, agreement and commitment.

4.       Action items with time and owner.  A separate sheet of action items will be created so that every attendee can see clearly which action items belong them and when they need to finish.

5.       Next meeting time and place.  A note on where and when the next meeting will be held.

Follow up and Listen

The meeting holder needs to follow up with participants regularly before next  meeting to ensure action items are under way. Because many meeting participants fail to follow their action items until the day of next meeting.  At the same time, the meeting holder need to listen to action owners and get their feedbacks, work with them to investigate the problem deeply, consider the strategy of next meeting if some action items can't finish within the deadline.   

Taking control during the meeting

Before discussion about the control of meeting,  we go to see a video firstly which displays a awful situation - Conference Call Goes Out of Control.

 

High technology brings more convenient for mobile communication but it brings more challenge to control meeting as well. In this chapter, I will focus on how to control in normal meeting but I will extend to discuss the impact of High Tech in a separate chapter.

From the video, we are easy to find out some errors the meeting holder made as below. He totally lost control of meeting at the beginning and cannot start his meeting.

a)      Sent meeting invitation on last Friday

      b)      Gave less time to participate for preparation
      c)       Held conference call in non-working time
      d)      Did not get alignment of meeting schedule

Firstly, make sure meeting environment is free from distractions. Meeting holder must take 20 minutes in advance to check facilities are workable including meeting room, chairs, projector, conference phone, computer, and net. This action will enable meeting to start on time. Additionally, meeting holder need to pay more attention to environment of participates and ensure they can join meeting in a non-distraction place. We learn from above video that the meeting will lose control if we don't notice the environment.

Secondly, start on time, nail the intro and focus on agenda. Start on time, do not waste time to wait for somebody  or repeat something which has been mentioned before someone join. Otherwise,  you show disrespect  for  punctual persons.  Go in with a strong opening and you'll feel more confident throughout. Make sure it covers your main talking points and follow your agenda.

Thirdly, get people involved and avoid the digressions.

Mostly, people will not connect with all topics closely and will zone out.  So go into the meeting with just three ideas, thoughts, or points. Once you find someone mentally drift away, you can ask him or her some question or opinion.  But we often encounter digressions or conflicts during the meeting which drive us to meaningless arguments. If so, stop it timely and get back the control. You can write down the valuable arguments and reschedule a meeting to discuss it within the small group. Try to follow the timeline of agenda to finish all items and do not waste time to focus on one topic even through it is important. I attached a video link which is especially for meeting Chairs, Susan Leahy M.A. teaches how to make powerful interventions to handle difficult meeting situations.How to Be an Effective Chair (What to say when...)

Last but not least,  call to action and write down key points by topics. What is the action you want your meeting attendees to take? Most meetings end and nobody is sure what the next steps are. Make sure everyone knows exactly what the next action is. Write down action owners,  action items , agreements, and pending items.

Making a plan before meeting

The better plan is, the more effective meeting is. Before a meeting, we need to ask ourselves 3”W”: Why, Who, When.

Why

Meeting organizer should be clear about the meeting purpose and ensure meeting is the most effective channel for this purpose.

When you hold a meeting without clear topics, the meeting participators will feel confused and time-waste. A meeting holder invited many functions to attend ad-hoc meeting for urgent case. He just wanted to find out solution or action owner from these participators. But he didn’t know what the root cause was and who the key person to resolve it was.  So he was blocked when others inquired what they needed to do.  

At the same time, many people over use meeting as a method of problem resolving or a channel of communication. That is the reason that managers are busy in meetings and faced meeting schedule conflicts.  After you have a clear purpose and goal for a meeting, you still need check whether there is any more effective channel than meeting, such as telephone, email, or separately discussion with different functions, especially when you cannot get the alignment with all participators’ schedule.
Who

Meeting participator is a key element of meeting.  Wrong invitation will cause time consuming and credit loss. When people are invited wrongly, they may think this meeting holder is not serious and will ignore next invitation sometimes.  At the same time, they may challenge the holder in the meeting and waste others’ time. On the other hand, the level of participator should be thought about which depends on the meeting requirement. Sometimes we need persons who can make decision but sometimes we just need an expert to give valuable input. Do not invite high level manager to attend routing discussion or invite low level staff to attend decision making section. Otherwise, goal of meeting is hard to achieve.

When

A proper agenda makes half of success of meeting.  Meeting holder should focus on his topics to draft an agenda. After that, the schedule of meeting should be aligned with participators especially those key persons.  Pay more attention – do not arrange a meeting on Friday if you could. Because most of people are making the weekend plan and may not concentrate on meeting and there is high risk that some key persons will be absent.  If you arrange a staff meeting near lunch time, a working meal will motivate staffs and shows your appreciation of their time. The most important thing is to send the agenda before meeting which helps participates to make preparations.

A good arrangement will lead success of meeting!

How to plan productive meetings by stage

In the daily work, we need to conduct various meetings with our clients, staff and partners. It can either be an expensive exercise in frustration or highly productive. There are three phases in a meeting and we will plan a productive meeting if we follow below basic guidelines.

1. Before the Meeting

Make a plan ahead. Firstly, consider whether meeting should be hold or not and are there any other way to solve issue instead of meeting. Secondly, think about who should attend and when they need to attend. Thirdly, make an proper agenda and distribute it days in advance.

2. During the Meeting

Control the meeting and make sure environment is free from distractions. a) Start on time, brief the agenda and clarify the ground rules for the meeting. b) Get people involved. c) Avoid the digressions and steer the team focus on the topics at the agenda. d) Confront conflict frankly but avoid losing control, stop meaningless arguments timely. e)Write down key points by topics.

3. Ending the Meeting and Follow Up

Summarize the main points of the meeting and remind people of action plan. a) Brief those agreed decision in the meeting. b) List down the action items, Identify action owners and align the deadline of completion. c)Distribute meeting minutes within one or two days after meeting. d) Follow up with action owners and check the progress of action items.

Properly arrange meetings can be beneficial and productive for your clients, staff and partners. Please go through above key points at each stage of meeting which will help you to conduct productive meetings.