Facilitating Meetings

We all love meetings, right? I mean, we go along doing legitimate work all day and then the meeting comes. It breaks our flow and makes us stop all the productivity we had. I don’t know too many people who like meetings. One of my primary functions in my current role is to facilitate these things. Meetings can be like herding kittens, especially when strong personalities are in the room. Frequently they become stages for those who desire to show their importance. That happens frequently in Academe. There are a number of tips on how to run effective meetings at various websites, but here are two in my opinion that are perhaps the most critical:.

1. Meetings, at the very least, need a goal; at the most a detailed agenda. If this is written in front of each attendee on a printout, or seen on a whiteboard or overhead, then it will help all people be cognizant of why they are there. Meetings that do not have a formal purpose will become frustrating to the attendees, even if things are accomplished. Another reason why you need this is because like I said, it’s like herding kittens. They need to be reminded of the purpose frequently to keep it from being a stage for the one or two difficult personalities in the room.
2. End your meeting early! When you are facilitating a meeting, do whatever you can, including tabling the lower priority agenda items if need be, and end it early. I have never once walked out of a meeting where I have heard someone say, “You know, we seemed pretty efficient in there, but I really wish we would have spent more time discussing all the agenda items.” It is my belief that attendees will think the meeting is successful if you start them on time and end them early. If you can’t end early, end them on time. If that’s not possible, schedule a second meeting. Show your attendees that you value their time and they will appreciate you.

Clearly this isn’t exhaustive, but these two usually start me in the right direction.