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Top 10 Structure Tips for a Great Meeting
By Nancy Grengs, Family Business Coach and Consultant
When you're responsible for organizing an important or large meeting, the structure and process are critical components to making it productive. Meeting scheduling, participant preparation and meeting documentation really impact the success of a meeting. Try these tips for structuring a great meeting and you're sure to see results.
1. Schedule the date and time with key participants in mind.
There are always a few key meeting participants. If you don't know who they are, ask around. People are always glad to be asked for their advice on these types of things. Within 24 hours, talk to the key participants and gather a quick verbal to hold a few dates and times that they are available to meet. Within a business day find a time that all the key participants can attend and send your meeting invitation out.
2. Be sure the attendees understand why they are invited.
When you talk with your key participants and others, be sure to explain the meeting objective, their role and the importance of their attendance at the meeting.
3. Create an agenda for the meeting.
A good agenda includes the following components about the meeting:
Objective - why you're having a meeting;
Who's leading the meeting - this meeting leader is often called the facilitator;
Agenda topics, their priority in relationship to the other meeting topics and who will be leading each topic. High priority topics that need additional time once a meeting is in progress can have their time extended by mutual agreement of the attendees. This may result in lower priority being deferred to another meeting.
If there is an official meeting recorder - this recorder is the person who will take notes and distribute them to all the meeting invitees;
Any items the members are expected to bring with them and;
Any pre-meeting work that might be expected.
4. Provide the agenda at least two full business days in advance.
If you want attendees to come prepared to participate, you must tell them what you are planning. The more preparation that is expected for the meeting, the farther in advance the agenda should be distributed.
5. Create an issues list.
Sometimes as a discussion progresses an important issue comes to light. Sometimes these issues are large enough to use all the time allotted for the meeting but, do not directly pertain to the objective of the meeting at hand. Should important issues arise that either don't pertain to the meeting's objective or that can not be resolved during the meeting, publicly record them and include them in the minutes.
6. Assign & record action items.
During the meeting, publicly record all the items that will need follow-up. Record the person responsible to take each action item. Ask if there is a date by which that person will complete their action item(s), and document it in the minutes.
7. Record the meeting discussion and decisions.
Include the following items in your minutes:
Who attended the meeting and who was invited but absent;
Who led and recorded the meeting;
A summary of key discussion items and decisions - include key wording or phrases from the meeting to ensure the accuracy of the conversation is preserved.
8. Record the meeting issues list and action items.
Include the outstanding issues and tasks that need completion in the minutes. Note who in the meeting has agreed to take which item forward and the expected completion date.
9. Distribute the draft meeting minutes.
To save time and overhead costs, distribute the draft minutes to attendees by email. In your email indicate you need comments returned to you within two days. If key participants find timing an issue, adjust their timeframe by special arrangement.
10. Distribute the final meeting minutes.
Collect the comments about the draft meeting minutes and make any necessary updates. Redistribute the final meeting minutes, action items and issues to all invitees.
About the Author
Nancy Grengs, family business coach and consultant works with family business owners to create long-term prosperity and peace of mind. To learn more about her and sign-up for more free tips like these, visit her site at www.grengs.com, call her at 360.944.3094, or email her at nancy@grengs.com. Top 10 Structure Tips for a Great Meeting copyright © 2003 Grengs & Associates. All rights reserved.
Note: You are welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to nancy@grengs.com.
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