What another meeting? Do you dread the thought?

Running an effective meeting is more than sending out a meeting request to a number of people with a time and place. Time is a precious and limited resource that turning time spent in meetings into sustained results is a priority for any successful organization.  Successful meetings require planning, preparation, execution, and follow up prior, during, and after the meeting. With structure and order meetings become an effective tool and applying the steps used in the Beyond Coaching  training can have an amazing energized result.

 Starting with a clear purpose for the meeting clearly set out in the meeting request. Draw up an agenda then stick to the format and time allocated.

A useful format to follow is :

• Where are we at today
• Checking back on assignments/action items (Not getting stuck in story – it is either complete or not? Can you still complete and if so by when?)
• What has happened since our last meeting
• Discuss and reach agreement on what we want to achieve. Don’t finish any discussion in the meeting without deciding how to act on it.
• How are we going to achieve the purpose/ what needs to be done
• Assign tasks with deadlines and hold each other accountable.

Finally, after the meeting prepare and forward the minutes, This is simply a record of what was agreed upon or achieved and an action item list of who is responsible for what and my when.

When we are in integrity during a meeting and accept an assignment with commitment to complete by an agreed date we achieve so much more. Meetings now shift from being a reporting tool to an action tool.