Are You Hosting Effective Meetings?

Efficient vs. Effective and why the difference matters

The concept of meetings is nothing new. The whole point of having a meeting is to bring together a group of individuals that are working on a common project or goal and to hash out ideas and inspire creative thinking, while also catching up on the overall progress made and mapping out future goals.

With the world having gone remote, meetings are more essential than ever! Not only is it important to stay in touch about ongoing work and facilitating collaboration between various departments and individuals, but it’s also important for a company to check in with the employees to make sure they’re doing ok amidst the ongoing pandemic. Businesses are doing their best to find video conferencing tools that meet all of their needs — which is a whole other topic in and of itself — but apart from that, it’s time to see what makes an effective meeting.

Let’s start by noting the difference between effective and efficient. Here’s a checklist for an efficient meeting:

• The meeting starts on time
• All invited individuals are at the meeting
• The meeting doesn’t take longer than the allocated time

If you meet all these criteria, you’ve had an efficient meeting! But, is that the priority? Is having an efficient meeting the goal you should be pursuing? To answer these questions, let’s take a look at the checklist for an effective meeting:

• The individuals attending your meeting all contribute in specific and useful ways
• The meeting starts and ends on time
• A meeting agenda is sent in advance and adhered to, allowing you to go through all the necessary points
• Tangible action items are decided at the end of the meeting, and there’s a space allocated for people to provide feedback and ask questions

See the difference? Efficient is all about timing and following the status quo without really questioning why you’re doing something, but effective is an iterative process. It urges you to look at a meeting and understand how useful it is and whether it’s achieving the desired results, rather than just hosted for the sake of it.

So, what does it take to conduct an effective meeting? We’ve put together a list of points to consider before hosting your next meeting so you can see for yourself the kind of value your conference calls are bringing in and how to better optimize your time:

Does the workload justify the meeting?

If your team is in the midst of any internal or external project that requires daily collaboration and constant communication, setting up a recurring meeting is an effective way to keep in touch. Hosting meetings with a higher frequency is justified by the need to regularly update one another and inspire creativity to produce the best results.

However, if the work being assigned to the team is more individualistic, or perhaps there aren't many projects that require regular updates from the team, consider making that daily or weekly meeting into a bimonthly one. It is ok to change the frequency of a meeting based on requirement- it’s always better to adjust frequency rather than waste everybody’s time and energy. Consider evaluating your workload at least twice a month and informing your team of any changes as necessary so they aren’t left in the dark about the new schedule either!

Do you need to host a meeting or just send an e-mail?

Oftentimes, we may call for a meeting regarding topics that can just as easily be discussed via e-mail or through the company’s official chat platform. Not only is this a more flexible way to obtain the information you need, but it’s also more efficient because you don’t have to go through all the formalities of a regular meeting.

This is especially the case with one-on-one meetings. While there are instances where multiple topics need to be discussed and so a scheduled meeting makes the most sense, most of these topics can also be hashed out with a simple typed message. Try to distinguish between the two so you can schedule meetings that bring in more value. Accordingly, figure out the purpose of the meetings you do schedule so you can allocate the appropriate amount of time for it!

Curate your audience carefully

While planning for a meeting, it is extremely important to invite the appropriate people. The shorter the list, the better. When a meeting has more members, things tend to get more chaotic and less productive. Additionally, by inviting individuals that are not really contributing to the discussion and aren’t gaining any value from it either, you are wasting their time and energy by including them in the call.

Go over your list of attendees with a fine-toothed comb and make sure that every single one of them can contribute in a meaningful way. This ensures that your calls are more effective for everyone involved.

Send out an agenda with your meeting invite

An agenda is a layout of your meeting. It highlights what time, what topics, who’s speaking, and what questions to both ask and answer. By providing your attendees with an agenda, they’ll have a better idea as to why they’re invited, what’s expected of them, and it gives them a chance to prepare accordingly.

Use a collaborative tool for your meeting agenda, and guide your attendees by showing them how to add in their own points, questions, and other notes. This makes the session more interactive and may bring up key points that you might’ve otherwise overlooked. Be sure to send out the agenda at least 24 hours in advance, if not longer!

Timing is everything

While timing is a critical factor in hosting an efficient meeting, it is equally important in an effective one. The time printed on a meeting agenda states when the meeting will begin, and not when the people should join the meeting. Urge your team members to join calls at least 5 minutes ahead of time, and make it a point to wrap up as planned. People often have back-to-back calls, and running overtime could cause major issues for them. It’s also important that they get a moment to breathe in between calls.

Be sure to keep the conversation on track, and nip any off tangent topics in the bud. It is essential that you use the meeting time to discuss points mentioned in your agenda, so commit to sticking to them.

Don’t hesitate to use a timer

While this is a more controversial method, a timer can really help keep things on track during a meeting. Make sure to explain to your attendees that the purpose of the timer is simply to maintain and adhere to the agenda, and not a means to cut someone off in the middle of their explanation. While it can sometimes interrupt the flow of a meeting, it also ensures that all the points get a set amount of attention during the meeting time.

Timers are even more important when multiple people have to vote on a decision. By allocating a set amount of time for the team to go over something and come to their own conclusion, you are pushing for an efficient yet effective way to come to a decision together.

End with action items

A great way to recap any meeting is to finish with action items. Urge your team members to note down their own action items in a common column of the meeting notes, and read them out at the end, setting necessary deadlines and other subtasks as you go. Not only will this bring everyone’s attention to the meeting, it ends the call with a sense of purpose and it will drive the team to get the job done.

It’s also a great time for anyone to add other tasks that may have slipped your mind, and the work can be divided and tackled in a balanced, efficient manner.

A good meeting is one that communicates the most information and value in the least amount of time. By adding value for every member present and making the most of every moment within that meeting, you are telling your team that you value their time and energy, thereby influencing them to value your own!

Thank you for reading!

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We are a fast-growing tech startup headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. Incepted in 2017 by 4 co-founders, we now have a team of 20+ experts in Information Technology (IT) and Digital Product creation. As Europe’s first Tech Angel, Inheaden supports startups or small businesses by providing them with the tech strategy, assets, and maintenance they need to thrive in today’s digital era.