Achieving business result trough effective meetings.

Meetings
Meetings occur within organizations and between members of different organizations.
Meetings are an important part of the business world.

Effective meetings
An effective meeting is a business meeting that serves certain desired purposes in an
optimal way. While meetings are among the core tools for making things happen in any
organizations, they often consume too much time and resources. The two natural benefits
of more effective meetings are:
• Better desired outcomes for you and your organization, including higher quality and
quantity of the results from your projects, better decisions, and motivation of the
people involved, and so on.
• Lower costs in time, energy, and other resources for you and your people, leaving
more of those resources to other mission critical tasks.
Objectives of meetings
Meetings are very important for the following objectives:
• Allocating resources
• Making decisions
• Schedule individual components of complex progress
• Solve problem
• Shared needed information
Guidelines For effective meeting
For the purpose of effective meetings, first we have to learn the basics. Here are some
simple, easy-to-follow and proven guidelines that should be followed each and every time
while conducting a meeting.

Guidelines that we can follow before, during and after your meeting:
1. Only hold a meeting if necessary.
2. All meetings must have clear objectives.
3. Invite a neutral facilitator to sensitive meetings.
4. All meetings must have an agenda which includes:
 Topics for discussion
 Presenter or discussion leader for each topic
 Time allotment for each topic
5. Meeting information needs to be circulated to everyone prior to the meeting.
Make sure to include:
 Meeting objectives
 Meeting agenda
 Location/date/time
  Background information
 Assigned items for preparation
6. Meetings must start precisely on time so as not to punish those who are punctual.
This also sets the stage for how serious you are about making the meeting effective.
7. Meeting participants must:
 Arrive on time
 Be well-prepared
 Be concise and to the point
 Participate in a constructive manner
8. Meeting notes must be recorded and made part of the company's meeting information
archives.
9. The decisions made by the group must be documented.
10. Assigned action items must be documented, and the host, or an appropriate participant,
must be appointed to follow-up on the completion of all action items.
11. Meeting effectiveness must be reviewed at the end of each meeting and suggested
improvements applied to the next meeting.

Effective Meetings - Tips

Before The Meeting
• Define the purpose of the meeting.
• Develop an agenda in cooperation with key participants. See a sample agenda.
• Distribute the agenda and circulate background material, lengthy documents or
articles prior to the meeting so members will be prepared and feel involved and up-
to-date.
• Choose an appropriate meeting time. Set a time limit and stick to it, if possible.

• If possible, arrange the room so that members face each other, i.e., a circle or semi-
circle. For large groups, try U-shaped rows.
• Choose a location suitable to your group's size. Small rooms with too many people
get stuffy and create tension. A larger room is more comfortable and encourages
individual expression.
• Use visual aids for interest (e.g., posters, diagrams, etc.). Post a large agenda up
front to which members can refer.
• Vary meeting places if possible to accommodate different members. Be sure
everyone knows where and when the next meeting will be held.

During The Meeting

• Greet members and make them feel welcome, even late members when appropriate.
• If possible, serve light refreshments; they are good icebreakers and make your
members feel special and comfortable.
• Start on time. End on time.
• Review the agenda and set priorities for the meeting.
• Stick to the agenda.
• Encourage group discussion to get all points of view and ideas. You will have better
quality decisions as well as highly motivated members; they will feel that attending
meetings is worth their while.
• Encourage feedback. Ideas, activities and commitment to the organization improve
when members see their impact on the decision making process.
• Keep conversation focused on the topic. Feel free to ask for only constructive and
non- repetitive comments. Tactfully end discussions when they are getting nowhere
or becoming destructive or unproductive.
• Keep minutes of the meeting for future reference in case a question or problem
arises.
• As a leader, be a role model by listening, showing interest, appreciation and
confidence in members. Admit mistakes.
• Summarize agreements reached and end the meeting on a unifying or positive note.
For example, have members volunteer thoughts of things they feel have been good
or successful or reiterate the organization's mission.
• Set a date, time and place for the next meeting.

After The Meeting

• Write up and distribute minutes within 3 or 4 days. Quick action reinforces
importance of meeting and reduces errors of memory.
• Discuss any problems during the meeting with other officers; come up with ways
improvements can be made.
• Follow-up on delegation decisions. See that all members understand and carry-out
their responsibilities.
• Give recognition and appreciation to excellent and timely progress.
• Put unfinished business on the agenda for the next meeting.
• Conduct a periodic evaluation of the meetings. Note any areas that can be analyzed
and improved for more productive meetings. See a sample meeting evaluation.
And remember, effective meetings will keep them coming back!

Importance and benefits of meeting:

 Meetings keep the members abreast of critical functional,political,technological,and

legal issues faced by the firm.
 It is very important specially in an empowered and team-based environment.
 The need of meetings typically increases as the number of teams and team based
projects increases.

Importance of meeting:
 Meetings are important in shaping organizational norms and improving work
processes
 Meetings also play an important role in organizations. Meetings are a way to fulfill
our need to be a part of a team, providing a sense of togetherness and trust.
  Meetings are important when members are involved in complex projects, with
multiple deadlines and set of objectives. The project making is an essential tool for
keeping projects- and project team members – on track.

What are virtual meetings?

Virtual meeting are that meeting in which members might be present physically in the same
place but are connected via video conferencing technology and e-mail.

Types of virtual meetings: