How to Make Meetings Work

It depends on what type of meeting you are scheduling for how strict you will have the agenda, but each meeting needs to have a basic agenda. Depending on how elaborate the meeting is will affect how detailed the agenda is and how much you can deviate from the agenda.

For basic meetings if you put together a basic agenda it will help you to keep track of the items you wanted to discuss during the meeting. It will also help everyone else determine how long the meeting will last and if they need to interject any comments. It also helps to determine if you can have a question and answer section or allow people to make general comments or suggestions. This is the type of meeting that is more flexible and is normally in a smaller setting.

A more elaborate meeting will require a detailed agenda that is completely worked out in advance to eliminate the possibility of forgetting something important. The agenda will be set and there won’t be an open discussion concerning the points of the meeting. It is normally an informational meeting that doesn’t need feedback and is normally organized into a group setting.

Once you determine how elaborate an agenda you will need then you need to determine how much interaction you want from the people attending the meeting. Once you determine this then you can set a specific area that you want to have feedback on and ask specific questions for the participants. The questions will help you get the answers you are looking for instead of having people look at you with a blank look on their face when you ask if anyone has any questions or comments.

You will also want to have a specific way you want to end the meeting so that people understand the meeting is over and don’t feel like they were left with unanswered questions or concerns. By using this basic layout for a meeting it will help you create an interactive meeting that will help all participants feel like the meeting was worth having. It is very frustrating to people to feel like they went to a meeting for absolutely no reason and they feel it is a waste of their time. So plan your meeting with an agenda and specific questions you want to address or answer then your meeting will be a success.