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You are here: Home / Leadership / Take Note! Inside the Most Productive Meetings …

Take Note! Inside the Most Productive Meetings …

April 30, 2018 By Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh

Do you find yourself enduring unproductive meetings week after week? You’re certainly not alone:

  • The average leader spends 31 hours a month at meetings (software firm Atlassian study)
  • Half of their meetings are their top time-waster (Atlassian)
  • 46% “rarely” leave a meeting knowing what they’re supposed to do next (Wrike’s Work Management Report)
  • Only slightly more than half leave a meeting knowing what actionable steps to take “most of the time” (Wrike) 

6 Ways to Make Meetings Productive (and a win for everyone)

So, here’s how to make your meetings as useful and constructive as possible for you – and the people you manage:

  1. Question its purpose: “No purpose, no meeting,” says Neil Patel, entrepreneur and author of Hustle. When a meeting has a clear focus, it’s much easier to set concrete actionable next steps and follow-up.
  2. Pinpoint participants: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a “two pizza” rule for making sure only the right people attend meetings: The group should be small enough where it only takes two pizzas to feed every person attending. “Instead of holding one large meeting every week for the entire staff, set up smaller groups to meet and invite only key employees,” says workplace expert Heather R. Huhman,
  3. Stay productive. Make sure all your time in meetings is time well-spent. “After listening carefully,” says Steve Pemberton, HR officer, Globoforce, “I’d picked up a few phrases – ‘To piggyback on that …’, ‘To his point’ ‘and “To build on that’ – that usually indicated that what was about to come next wasn’t going to be productive.” That made them aware to move on to solutions or next steps, he says.
  4. Establish specific commitments: At the end of each topic, pause to agree on next steps and specifically who’s involved. Then assign someone to check in at appropriate intervals to ensure commitments are kept.
  5. Initiate a closing round: At the end of the meeting, go around the room and ask everyone to say what their next steps are in 30 seconds or less. “This can ward off any issues that may fester and prepare everyone for the next actions,” says Brad Volin, sales manager, Adigo.
  6. Follow up with key takeaways: Send an email to your team with clear, concise action items, deadlines, etc. so that everyone stays on the same page. “It also helps to quickly erase any confusion with any members of the meeting,” says Nick Francis, The Franchise Group.

Now, if you show everyone else how it’s done, they’ll start taking your lead.

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Filed Under: Leadership, Featured Home Tagged With: actionable steps, meeting agenda, meetings, next steps, productive meetings

About Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh

“An important attribute of success is to be yourself. Never hide what makes you, you." -- Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo

As editor-in-chief of Woman’s Own and American Woman magazines, I have championed the personal and professional development of women for years. I started my career unsure of my own path and abilities, but I always had a natural curiosity and an interest in words and writing. When selected to launch American Woman as editor-in-chief, after a string of editorial jobs, I was thrilled—and terrified at being responsible for a brand new venture. All I could do was my best, based on my instincts and years of experience. American Woman was a success, offering me things I hadn’t achieved before—the confidence to do public speaking and a journalism award (Exceptional Merit Media award from the National Women’s Political Caucus & Radcliffe College). I hope my insights, now as an editor for Progressive Women’s Leadership, will help you on your own journey to career success.

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