Meetings: ineffective vs. effective

We almost have to attend at least 1 meeting in our lifetime. Of course, I’m no exception. This post writing is mainly for discussion and kick-start those who in-need of an effective meeting.

Here are some meetings that we usually see daily:

1. Brainstorming: people come into meeting with laptops and notes. And mostly they seem to busy do something else. I usually have storms in my head being in this type of meeting.
2. Weekly WIP meeting: I bet the general director is usually the most active person in the room. Poor him. This will only make the situation more dramatic.
3. Briefing: Ok, you should never jump into a briefing meeting without knowing anything about your client. Don’t be a victim. Be proactive to ask for information before jumping in.
4. Training (any): people love training and join enthusiastically. But then, they will ask after the training “anh then what?”. Please be patiently and don’t jump off the bridge.
5. Status meeting: 99% will try to avoid this because they claim that they are so busy to do this: “Damn, I know. But I have millions of work to be done. Leave me alone, will you?”

How to have a naked true effective meeting?

Here are some tips:

1. Agenda: to let people know why they are in the meeting and what we will achieve.

2. Action list: we must actively direct people to contribute for the meeting.

3. Research: people come into meetings should at least do research on their own about topic we’re going to talk.

These are only small tips but require a big challenge to change the culture in a company or a group.

I hope you can use this to apply to your meetings.

Good luck