Are you one of those people who experiences of a bit of recoil when you hear the words “office meeting?” Well, this is probably because the meetings you’re attending have you sitting there like a zombie while coworkers discuss parent teacher conferences and other irrelevant topics. There’s a time and place for sharing personal information with coworkers, but during meetings just isn’t one of them.
In fact, when done right, meetings don’t actually need to last as long as you might think. Let’s take a look at 5 office meeting tips that can help prevent your next meeting from turning into a premature zombie apocalypse (of bored employees).
1. Clear Purpose
Remember that the purpose of the meetings needs to be crystal clear and this goal needs to communicated to all attending beforehand. Also, this means only inviting people to meetings who need to be there. In other words, limit the number of people invited to the only those who are directly involved.
2. Stay on Topic
Meetings should never be a chat or a catching up session. Really, meetings usually don’t have to last as long as 30 minutes either. Many times, if the preparation is done right, then all the participants have to do is show up on time, deliver and listen to what needs to be said, and that’s it.
3. Keep it Relevant for the Entire Group
Since the purpose of the meeting is essentially to deliver key points, individual conversations can be held outside of the meeting. That is, if you’d like to have a conversation about something specific with someone attending the meeting and no one else really benefits from that exchange, then have that conversation outside of the meeting time.
Individual conversations can really drown the meeting and take the goal of the meeting entirely off course. Sound familiar? Of course it does.
4. Be Specific and Efficient
If you’re having a conversation with the entire group about whether or not the new app icon actually reflects the company, then of course that’s great. You either agree or disagree. Once that’s settled, move on. Efficiency in the meeting helps move it forward. Repetition just makes things stale and gets everyone into the start of zombie mode.
5. Define and Assign Next Steps
Not only should you be making decisions in meetings and moving forward, but meetings are an opportunity to get the ball rolling and set the agenda until the next meeting. If you have to, at the end of the meeting deliver the goals to be accomplished by the next meeting as well as what the expectations are for the members of the team.
This way, the team’s inertia is consciously set in a forward motion. This forward movement promotes development and acts against time wasting chats. Don’t put your team members to sleep. They’ve got important work to get back to, just like you do. Your startup deserves efficiency so make sure you’re prepared to deliver the message, hash out any discussions, and take your startup to the next level.
