Running a productive meeting is a skill. Once you learn it, your meetings will accomplish more, they’ll be better attended, and your members will feel like part of a community. Here are seven ground rules for running a productive meeting. Rule #1: Before organizing a meeting, make sure you need one. Meetings are a good place to make group decisions, develop the plan for an event, or delegate responsibilities to a group. Alternately, if you only need to disseminate information without getting input, that makes for a boring and unnecessary meeting. Once you have decided that you need a meeting, you have to prepare for it. This includes:
  • Defining the goals
  • Preparing an agenda
  • Developing a list of attendees
  • Identifying somebody to facilitate the different sections of the meeting
  • Preparing the facilitators and attendees
  • Anticipating pitfalls
  • Planning an opportunity to debrief with meeting leadership
Rule #2: Preparing for a meeting takes at least as long as the meeting itself. The logistics of a meeting can define its success. Consider the following:
  • Is the location easily accessible? Is the time convenient? Can we avoid conflicts with classes, other meetings, etc?
  • Is the room the right size for the group?  (It’s always better to have lots of people in a smaller room, than very few people in a large room)
  • Are the chairs set up such that it’s easy to see and hear each other?
  • Is there a chalkboard or whiteboard for brainstorming?
  • Is there a sign-up sheet?
  • Are there materials for people to take?
  • Are there refreshments or a plan for post-meeting socializing?
  • What is the scheduled duration of the meeting?
Rule #3: Know your goals. Every meeting should have a goal. Figure out what you’re trying to get out of this meeting, and then make sure the agenda helps you do it. If something on the agenda doesn’t help you accomplish the goal of the meeting, that agenda section might be unnecessary. Rule #4: Make your follow-up plan before the meeting. Every productive meeting requires follow-up – everything from thanking VIPs who attended, to making sure delegated tasks are actually happening. Before the meeting, make sure that there is a workable plan and timeline for following up on decisions that have been made and tasks that have been delegated. Rule #5: Prepare all participants. Everyone coming to the meeting should have a basic sense of the goals of the meeting, how they will participate, and who else will be in attendance. In addition, the members who are facilitating different sections of the agenda should have a sense of what needs to be accomplished during their section and during the meeting as a whole. Rule #6: Anticipate pitfalls. The most difficult part of running a productive meeting is dealing with group dynamics. Here are some common pitfalls and potential solutions:
  • Lack of participation
    • Solutions:
      • Prep people to participate prior to the meeting
      • Frame discussions clearly
      • Use “criteria” to frame decisions
  • A few people are dominating the discussion
    • Solutions:
      • Talk with dominant talkers before or during the meeting
      • Be prepared to call on others
  • Spending too much time on one issue
    • Solutions:
      • Agree on time limits at the outset of the meeting
      • Use straw polls to gauge the sense of the group
      • Prevent too much discussion if the group is largely at a consensus
  • Don’t create a false sense of power or false decisions (for example: brainstorms that aren’t actually necessary, pretending to “make a decision” that’s actually already been made)
    • Solution:
      • If a decision has already been made, lay it out and give context for why it was made
  • Dealing with things in a meeting that should be dealt with individually (personal gripes, etc)
    • Solution:
      • Save these issues for individual conversations
Rule #7: Debrief after the meeting. After the meeting, pull together anyone who helped plan the meeting to quickly discuss:
  • Was the agenda appropriate?
  • Were the people who attended the ones who should have attended?
  • Were the facilitators well prepared?
  • Were the participants well prepared?
  • How were the logistics?
  • What is the appropriate follow-up for each person in the group?
  • What should we do differently next time to improve the meeting?
Getting these ground rules right will take skill and time. Remember to learn from mistakes, and teach these skills to other students so they can run productive meetings too.