Tips & Advice for Managing Meetings

Meetings! If you feel the will to live ebbing away in yet another tedious, pointless meeting, then read on...

Top 10 Tips for Managing Meetings

1. Agree the purpose and expectations of the meeting before you start
2. Based on the above, prepare exactly what you will need to make a relevant contribution.
3. Set time limits - start and finish. A participant failing to meet either of these tells you all you need to know their commitment and contribution.
4. Hold people to their agreed actions from previous meetings, preferably before the meeting itself, but don’t let it slip from one meeting to the next without making a note of the change of plan.
5. Change the Chair - if you’re a bit stuck with patterns of behaviour, shake up the group dynamics. Take it in turns to chair the meeting.
6. Change the venue, seating arrangements or format to keep people’s minds fresh and engaged.
7. If the meeting’s being taken down a path of too much irrelevant detail, by a minority of participants, suggest this is covered in a separate meeting and move on.
8. Manage the content carefully - limit the waffle from those who like to hear their own voices, and encourage comments or input from the quieter ones.
9. Agree a code of conduct: confidentiality, time-keeping, use of mobile phones, one person speaking at a time, etc all need to be agreed and adhered to for the meeting to work.
10. If you’re trying to make your point by asking a long, complicated question, don’t. JUST MAKE YOUR POINT.

Reflection Consulting offers specialist advice in group dynamics, communication, negotiation and influence, as well as specific help with Partnerships.

Some meetings require the leadership of an impartial, independent facilitator, to free up participants’ thinking, encourage new contributions, and allow the Chair to contribute to the discussion rather than manage it. With our advanced facilitation skills and expertise in a range of settings, we’ll add to the energy and participation of any event.