December 10, 2019 Making Office Meetings More Productive

StaffScapes discusses how to make office meetings more productive, engaging and efficient.

December 9, 2019

Traditional office meetings are used to discuss goals, upcoming projects, and any other concerns that impact a business’s operations. Many times employees and team members find meetings to be boring or irrelevant to their responsibilities. In this article, StaffScapes discusses four methods for making office meetings as engaging and efficient as possible.

1. Prepare and Stick To a Simple Agenda

First, determine what the purpose of your meeting is. Unless you need to get direct input from specific people, to ask for authority or approval to act, or to directly distribute information, you might get what you need through an email, memo, or instant message instead of an in-person meeting. If you need a meeting, establish a short and direct written agenda in advance. Clearly state the purpose of the meeting, and develop focused action points to be addressed to meet the purpose of the meeting.

Be as specific as possible in setting out agenda items, and when necessary, set out any items that the meeting will not cover that might be related in a tangential way to the actual subject.

2. Prohibit Laptops, Tablets, and Phones

In-person meetings require in-person participation to be effective. If an attendee spends the meeting looking at an electronic device, it is objectively apparent that they are not participating. Although some people might use their device for taking notes, the demands of electronic devices override any note-taking benefit. Have participants bring legal pads and pens for note-taking. In addition to affecting the attention of a person using a device, device usage is disrespectful to the other meeting participants and diminishes the overall group attitude to the mission at hand.

3. Encourage and Manage Productive Participation

Especially when the group size is manageable, include bullet points on your agenda for group input and discussion. Allow every participant to lead the conversation and add thoughts when you can. Participation almost always enhances the attitude of the group and each individual towards the meeting.

Always be sure to manage group discussion and don’t let the meeting devolve into multiple speakers going at it at the same time or allow one person to monopolize the time set aside for the meeting.

4. Make the Meeting Actionable and Establish Follow Up Criteria

Be sure to have an arc in mind for the meeting to follow to its conclusion. When the meeting is ready to end, you should be able to quickly recap the purpose of the meeting and what was accomplished in discussion during the meeting. When decisions are made, you should be able to articulate those clearly and then set up short action items for relevant meeting participants as a result. Follow up after the meeting with a brief recap message and outline the feedback expected from the group or individuals as a result of decisions made at the meeting.

About StaffScapes
StaffScapes helps businesses in the Metro North area and throughout Colorado navigate the complex landscape of human resource compliance, policies and best practices. As a comprehensive Professional Employer Organization (PEO) that focuses exclusively on holistic HR management and compliance, StaffScapes supports every partner business’s personnel management and optimization efforts. StaffScapes works with businesses of all types and sizes throughout Colorado to allow every partner to spend their time working on their core missions.

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