When a meeting goes well, it goes REALLY well – the team (or group) that has got together, leaves with a sense of achievement, a renewed energy to drive them forward.
But when they go bad, they can leave you completely diflated for the rest of the day and vowing to be “ill” the next time a meeting is called.
The level of success of meetings depends very much on those attending. And of course, most of this responsibility relies on the person who has called (or is in charge of) the meeting. Having attended many many meetings with diverse groups of people and for a wide range of reasons, I have put together a short guide to ‘Productive Meetings’.
My first tip is this one: don’t think of a meeting as something that happens just at a particular time. It is the middle stage, sandwiched between the period BEFORE the meeting and AFTER the meeting. These two last stages are often ignored but they are the ones which will make the meeting worth having, or a waste of time or anything else within the “usefulness” spectrum.
So, if you are involved in meetings in any capacity or you are thinking of organising a team-away event, watch this space for thoughts on Preparing for the Meeting, During the Event and Post-Mortem.
