How To Run A Meeting

1) Write an agenda.  It should have the date of the meeting on it.  The topics should be numbered.  The topic headings should clearly convey the subject matter to everyone attending the meeting. 

2) Arrive early.  Collate and lay out the agenda and any other written materials so they are ready.

3) If you're bringing food and/or drink, set it up where it won't block views or interfere with people's ability to write or see the agenda, and where people can get to it for refills without interrupting everyone.  Make sure there are napkins, stirrers, and a wastebasket.

4) Have something to write on and a pen.  When the meeting starts, jot down a list of who was there (or pass out a sheet if appropriate).

5) Have an ending time clearly in mind (and on the agenda) and review that with the attendees at the beginning of the meeting.

6) Don't talk too much.  As you go through the agenda items, listen.  If you discover that you are talking more than listening, consider why you are having a meeting at all.  If there's someone at the meeting who isn't or shouldn't be talking, why are they there? 

7) Be open to new ideas that arrive or are born at the meeting.  That's the best part of meetings, and is why you have brought people together -- to figure out things that can't be done alone or in one-on-one communications.  Try to capture these ideas or insights enough that you and a subset of those present at the meeting can flesh out ideas born from the meeting at a later date.  Make the plan to follow up on fledgling ideas RIGHT THEN, or it won't happen. 

8) If someone suggests something or volunteers to do something, ask them to identify the next step and ask them to commit to taking it on and reporting back to you by a date certain.  Ask what they need from you to fulfill what they've committed to.   Capture that information and make a note of it.  Follow up after the meeting or the next day. 

9) End on time, even if you don't get to everything on the agenda. 

10) Thank everyone for coming, for contributing, and for the things they promised to take on before the next meeting.  Mean it.

Comments

[sarni]

This is related to the rule regarding having a finish time - a friend's rule (which I have found pretty useful) is that meetings should be less than an hour long - ones that take longer than that generally degenerate into chatting and jokes.

[ChrisS]

... ones that take longer than [an hour] generally degenerate into chatting and jokes.

That's the same rule of thumb I use for workouts. If it takes longer than an hour, then I'm spending too much socializing.

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