OFW guide: How to make meetings more productive

Meetings are essential to any company because many rules, ideas, and suggestions are made during meetings.

However, there is a tendency for meetings to take up too much of the employees' time and it is thus necessary to find ways to make meetings more productive.

According to a Hardvard Business Review article, some of the ways to keep meetings relevant and productive include:

(1) Making sure the meeting is needed

Before pushing through with a meeting, double check whether there aren't any other alternatives to it.

Can you get input through email or by having a one-on-one or even a casual conversation with a subordinate or higher-up?

If the answer is no, there is no choice but to carry on with the meeting.

(2) Have a clear objective

When you send the invitations to the meeting, state what you aim to achieve.

To reiterate the importance of the meeting, you must announce the meeting's objective immediately when it starts and provide a general idea about how it will progress.

(3) Focus

Keep everything straight and tight during a meeting. Discuss the agenda and don't get sidetracked by cracking jokes.

Remember that meetings consume not only your time but also that of the attendees. This is the company's time which could otherwise be used to rake in earnings for the company.

More tips

Meanwhile, the business site Inc. also has tips on keeping company meetings productive.

(1) Highlight problems, not problem makers

When in a meeting, ideas are bound to arise. Sometimes there will be differences in perspective which may lead to arguments.

Instead of addressing the person, focus instead on that person's idea.

This won't then seem like a personal attack against the one who presented it.

(2) Dig deep for a conclusion

A meeting only has one objective — to find the best solution the the biggest problem bothering the company most recently.

Don't adjourn the meeting once you think that you've already reached a great consensus on the first try.

More brainstorming would do the trick and will squeeze any other hidden ideas of your co-workers.

(3) Keep it balanced

Meetings are all about discussing ideas and pointing out their strengths and weaknesses.

Arguing over ideas instead of building solutions would just be a waste of precious company time.

“Avoiding conflict isn’t good; debating each other all the time is not that good either. You want to have a moderate amount,” Inc. said. - Andrei Medina, VVP, GMA News

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