4 Best Strategies To Make Meetings More Productive

Meetings are supposed to be a productive time for all the employees in attendance. Apart from discussing important matters as part of the agenda, it’s an opportunity for staff members to bring up any work-related concern they have. That’s why many businesses make it a point to set aside time—at the very least, once a month—for employees to gather for a meeting.

You may already be observing that practice as well. But are you absolutely sure your meetings are leading to good results? No matter how well you plan and prepare for one, it can still turn out sloppy and unproductive. If that happens frequently, employees might become uninterested in attending meetings, and that’s certainly not the company culture you want to have.

You can make your meetings more productive and worthwhile by implementing these strategies:

1. Use Meeting Management Software

Office meeting nightmares can turn into pleasant, positive experiences when you use technology to your advantage. There are so many options you can look into for that purpose, but it’s all a matter of going for the right meeting management tools.

If you’re still unsure about whether or not having one or several would impact your meetings, here’s a list of some of the advantages of having meeting management software:

• It allows you to go paperless. During meetings, physical documents and forms are often unavoidable. With the clamor for businesses and individuals alike to become more eco-friendly, meeting management software can make paperless meetings possible. All of the information to be discussed that would’ve otherwise been printed can be accessed by all meeting attendees on the platform, taking away the need for producing individual copies.
• It provides real-time updates and synchronized information. With a meeting management program, you can keep attendees on the loop digitally. This lets everyone get all the updates regarding the meeting right away.
• It enables remote meetings, which is great given that modern workplaces have more remote employees today than ever before. Just because they aren’t in the physical office doesn’t mean that those individuals have to be excluded from important company meetings.

2. Determine If A Meeting Is Really Necessary

This second tip may sound counterproductive, but think about how meetings take up a lot of time, and time is money in any enterprise. So if you schedule meetings too frequently, assess whether or not a meeting is really necessary.

Perhaps among the main reasons your meetings are unproductive is that the agenda is too short or the information you want to relay to your team members can be given via email. Should you notice such issues and similar others prior to calling a meeting, it’d be best not to proceed with it and reserve meetings only for crucial or urgent matters.

3. Be Well Prepared

Once you’ve sent out the notice for the meeting, now comes the need for you to be ready for it. Don’t procrastinate or think you can just let the meeting flow on its own. One of the key secrets to having a productive meeting is adequate preparation.

Here are some of the steps you can take:

• Create the agenda. This refers to what you want talk about in the meeting. With an agenda, you can keep the meeting focused.
• Reserve the location. This applies if you don’t have a meeting room in your office or if the space you have is too small for the number of attendees you’re expecting, particularly if you’re having a large meeting.
• Gather the necessary materials. This is for when graphics and various types of visualization are needed and you don’t have meeting management software installed yet.

4. Set An RSVP Date

Another productivity eater for meetings is when you don’t reach the target attendance. It’s pointless to have a meeting for important company matters if not everyone who should be there is present. The meeting becomes unproductive in the sense that proper dissemination of information isn’t achieved since the majority isn’t even around.

When you send out meeting invitations, be sure to have an RSVP system and a deadline. That way, if you don’t reach the meeting quorum, you can decide between proceeding or cancelling.

Conclusion

Having looked at the strategies above, it should now be easy for you to recognize that unproductive meetings are a result of unpreparedness and a lack of structure. When you call for a planned meeting, it should follow that you’re 100% ready for it. Don’t just call one at random. By using the right meeting management software and coupling it with the tried-and-true methods above, you can turn the tables around and host highly productive meetings every time.