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Are your business meetings dull, uninspiring, and inefficient? Do they drain morale, waste time, and focus on the past? Would you like them to be vibrant, engaging, productive, and future-focused? If so, here are some suggestions to supercharge your business meetings.
- Assess your current situation. Be honest. Determine what is and isn’t working and commit to improvement.
- Raise your expectations and demand more from your sessions. Agendas should be circulated in advance so attendees can be prepared and ready to actively participate.
- Set ground rules. No Web surfing or crossword puzzles. Keep your sessions disciplined and business-like, but don’t forget the benefits of humor to lighten things up and reduce stress.
- Have an agenda, but be prepared to leave it. If a stimulating and productive discussion develops, exploit it. Harvest creative ideas. You can always revisit less important matters at a later time.
- Challenge your meeting time and formats. If your meetings get in a rut, try something different. Don’t underestimate the power of mixing things up.
- Know when to quit. If you hit a big breakthrough, consider stopping. End on a high note.
- Avoid the trivial. Handle routine updates via memos or e-mail.
- Stretch and challenge the team. Your meetings are valuable personal and organizational development opportunities, treat them that way.
- Recognize excellence and praise and reward performance.
- Focus on the positives and keep future-focused. Maintain a positive tone and discuss your yesterdays only to improve your tomorrows.
- Recap and take action. Resolve issues, determine a course of action, and assign action steps. It’s important to make recognizable progress.
- End on a unifying note. Reinforce the common bond and move forward together.
You can make your business meetings more productive. Commitment and discipline will make it happen.
