Effective Meetings, Every Time: 6 Simple Rules

A while back, a colleague reached out to me with a problem:

“It’s my first day at (my new client) and the project that I am is really lacking in the project management department. Problem is, they don’t know it. The meetings and initiatives lack direction and decision making, things are left up in the air, etc. It is stressing me out.”

This is a problem that has been solved a million times over, but it still got me thinking: How would I boil down my method for conducting effective meetings? I hope you find it useful, my colleague did.

My 6 Rules For Effective Meetings:

Rule #1: Set an agenda beforehand, include it in the invite.

Commentary: There is nothing worse than walking in to a meeting asking the question “what is this about?” Agendas don’t have to be big, bullet points are fine.

Rule #2: Take control of the meeting within 2 minutes or so, and remind them why you are there and what you want to accomplish.

Commentary: Banter and personal connections at the outset of a meeting are great. Don’t cut people off if they are talking about their weekends, etc., just don’t let them detail their ENTIRE weekend :-). Using the first minutes of a meeting to set high level context and goals of the meeting are essential to keeping it on track.

Rule #3: Allow for topic diversions during the meeting, but don’t hesitate to table something if it is going too far off topic.

Commentary: As you go deep into the topic at hand, inevitably attendees will go down the path of what is most important to them. You never know what these “side” conversations may uncover. Listen carefully to the conversation but don’t be afraid to pause it with a “let’s table that for another meeting” and bring it back to the primary topic at hand.

Rule #4: State (and re-state) clear conclusions, decisions, and action items and document them.

Commentary: This is the real key. If conclusions, decisions, and/or follow up actions aren’t coming out of your meeting, then why are you meeting? Your goal as the meeting mediator is to identify these conclusions, and ensure you have buy-in.

Rule #5: Finish the meeting with a reminder of those conclusions, etc.

Commentary: As you wrap things up, remind attendees of the initial goals of the meeting and the decisions that were made to that end. In addition to reconfirming buy-in, this act reminds attendees that this was a productive meeting. Productive meetings breed productive meetings, and reinforce that you get things done.

Rule #6: Follow up with action items and assignments.

Commentary: This is a surprisingly hard part. Follow up from meetings still falls to the person who set up the meeting. If you don’t follow up (and ensure others do as well), who will?

Simplifying the 6 Rules:

Works every time.

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