Work meetings are the rhythm of our professional lives. And with good reason! They are essential to the smooth running of the company’s activities and project management.
Yet many people regard most meetings as pointless and a waste of time. For example, according to a Zippia survey, 65% of employees say that frequent meetings are detrimental to their work.
So what are the keys to a successful team meeting? What are the best practices to put in place to make them more meaningful?
From sound advice to clever tools, find out how to organise and run an effective work meeting.
When and why organise a business meeting?
Work meetings are only appropriate when there is a need to exchange ideas and when a group dynamic is required.
☝️ Unless there are exceptional circumstances, avoid organising a meeting with the aim of passing on information in a “top-down” fashion. In this case, a simple e-mail may suffice.
You need to think carefully beforehand about the objectives of your meeting. This may seem obvious, but always ask yourself: “What exactly do I want to get my staff together for? “. Without thinking this through beforehand, you run the risk of wasting a lot of everyone’s time.
The objectives of the meeting can be of different kinds:
- draw up an action plan
- reorganise a department
- reorganise working methods
- welcoming a new employee
- coordinating projects ;
- negotiate, etc.
Once your objective has been clearly defined, you will be in a better position to understand the direction and type of your working meeting.
The different types of working meeting
The content of the meeting determines its type. Here are the most common types.
Department or review meeting
This is a regular, often weekly, meeting that enables a team to take stock of projects in progress, tasks completed and any bottlenecks.
The departmental meeting or review encourages exchanges between team members, with the aim of strengthening coordination and aligning priorities.
Information meetings
Less participative than the previous one, this is held when management needs to communicate on really important issues (new organisation, change of direction, takeover, etc.).
Before organising it, always ask yourself whether the information can be conveyed in another way, by e-mail for example.
Crisis or problem-solving meetings
Convened in response to a sudden difficulty, such as an operational incident, the crisis meeting is used to unblock a complicated situation, settle conflicts, resolve communication problems, etc.
It’s a delicate exercise, where it’s important to be a good listener in order to ease tensions.
Brainstorming
This is the meeting dedicated to creativity par excellence!
The aim? To generate as many new ideas as possible around a specific subject. If it’s run well, it can lead to the emergence of truly innovative ideas that will benefit your business.
How do you prepare a meeting?
Select the right participants
There’s nothing more frustrating than the feeling that you’ve wasted time with a meeting you didn’t have to attend.
That’s why you need to select your participants carefully.
Always ask yourself the following question: which members of staff will be essential to achieving the objective defined in advance?
Make sure that you get confirmation of attendance from everyone well in advance. This will enable you to anticipate any absences and reorganise accordingly.
Plan the meeting efficiently
Next comes the planning stage. Find a date that suits everyone. And avoid, as far as possible, meetings between 2pm and 4pm: because of digestion, the brain is much less receptive in this time slot.
💡 And if you find it difficult to plan your work meetings efficiently, consider the many software programmes that make the task easier, such as Doodle.
Choose a suitable venue
In the same way as you chose a suitable time slot, make sure you select an appropriate meeting venue. It should offer sufficient capacity for all participants.
We also recommend that you avoid blind rooms, as artificial light is much more tiring for the brain than daylight.
Of course, it is perfectly possible to operate via videoconferencing. As long as you use a tool that includes all the necessary functions, such as screen sharing.
Draw up a work meeting plan
Organising an efficient and smooth working meeting necessarily involves drawing up a plan.
This is similar to a meeting preparation sheet. We suggest you construct it as follows:
- Highlight your agenda on your document, i.e. the list of subjects to be dealt with, discussed, voted on, etc. It should lead to the achievement of the objectives of the meeting. It should lead to the achievement of the objectives defined in advance.
- Prioritise the subjects to be discussed.
- Allocate a specific amount of time to each phase. This will ensure that you don’t get bogged down on certain points and run out of time to deal with others.
- Remember to include extra time at the end of the meeting for questions.
- If necessary, include the names of the participants on your document, as well as the place and date of the meeting.
Involve the participants
At this stage in the preparation of your meeting, and if you deem it necessary, call on certain participants to work on the topics to be discussed.
To do this, send them your agenda, and indicate the subjects on which you would like them to take the lead during the meeting.
Prepare working documents and materials
Finally, take the time to carefully prepare your working documents. These are what will make the meeting more dynamic and effective.
💡 If you want to rely on more impactful working aids, turn to presentation software. Prezi, for example, will help you make the difference. It offers dynamic templates (created by designers) that will make your presentations more captivating.
In addition, always check beforehand the availability and functionality of the equipment you intend to use (pens, flipchart paper, extension lead, etc.). Who hasn’t lost precious time because a video projector wouldn’t turn on?
Finally, if you know that the meeting is likely to drag on for a long time, a snack or bottles of water are always appreciated.
How do you run a business meeting?
Introduce the meeting properly
It’s all about the introduction. To do this properly, you need to :
- start on time ;
- remind everyone of the agenda and the objectives of the meeting;
- briefly review the role of each participant, and remind them of the rules and the time to be allocated to your meeting;
- if necessary, appoint a secretary to take notes (with a view to drawing up minutes), or even to manage time.
Make sure the meeting runs smoothly
Has your business meeting started?
As the organiser, it’s up to you to ensure that it runs smoothly, by following these few tips:
- make sure that the meeting is moving in the right direction. To achieve this, ensure that the agenda is respected, by guiding the discussions in the right direction;
- make sure that speaking time is distributed fairly, and encourage all participants to speak;
- Anticipate and defuse conflicts;
- make good use of working documents and moderation tools;
- Summarise and regularly ensure that the information and understanding of the subjects are correctly grasped by all those present;
- If you have not delegated this role, make sure you keep to the timetable.
Conclude the meeting
Is it time to end your team meeting?
Conclude it by summarising the discussions and the decisions taken. Depending on your needs, you may want to take some time to plan the next meeting, or even determine its purpose.
Finally, always send minutes to the meeting participants afterwards. These are based on your notes or those taken by your secretary, and summarise the progress made and conclusions reached.
10 tips to boost your business meetings
- Limit meetings to 30-45 minutes, as concentration drops sharply after that.
- Set up a “meeting-free zone”, i.e. time slots or days without meetings to encourage in-depth work.
- Ask one participant to play the role of constructive critic to avoid group bias.
- Opt for stand-up meetings. Stand-up meetings make discussions more dynamic and naturally shorten their duration.
- If certain points do not concern everyone, allow participants to leave the meeting once they have finished their contribution.
- Include periods of silence: these few minutes of individual reflection before decisions are taken improve the quality of discussions.
- Measure post-meeting effectiveness by means of a mini-survey or anonymous feedback.
- Experiment with the “reverse meeting” format. Here, participants consult the documents beforehand, then come with questions or decisions to validate.
- Display a roadmap or kanban to keep you on track in real time.
- Reward effective meetings. Why not introduce a “meeting of the week” or a small token reward for the most relevant formats?
What can we learn from the meeting?
As we have seen, it is entirely possible to “reenchant” the working meeting, to stop seeing it as a waste of time.
But to ensure that you add real value to your meeting, there’s no secret: prepare it with rigour and method!
And don’t forget to use specific software: it will help you make a success of your meeting, and make it a much more collaborative and dynamic exercise. Your staff will thank you!
