How to Make Meetings More Productive (and Keep Your Team Energized)

How to Make Meetings More Productive (and Keep Your Team Energized)

We’ve all had them: Unproductive meetings. They’re frustrating to everyone involved. These types of meetings leave people feeling drained, irritated, and overwhelmed. Instead of accomplishing a task, team members find themselves disappointed that they were forced to spend their precious time in a meeting that didn’t need to happen.

This is no way to lead your team and keep your employees energized.

Help avoid these all too common situations in your office, here are five tips for your next meeting.

#1. Don’t Sit Down

Are your employees getting too comfortable at your meetings? Are you?

Sitting down signals that you expect people to stay a while. Productive meetings should be succinct so that employees can get back to their desk and back to work. If you sit down during a meeting, you are more inclined to stay for longer.

Want proof? Just check out how Imagine Easy Solutions cut their meeting times by 25% just by standing instead of sitting.

#2. Agree on a Time

There are certain times of the day when people are most productive. Some team members find that they’re more productive in the morning, while others feel more productive after a few cups of coffee.

Conduct a survey of your team. Then, schedule your meetings around the times when you won’t steal away from your team’s ability to work effectively.

#3. Create an Agenda and Stick To It

You already know that multitasking doesn’t work in your daily routine. It won’t work in meetings either.

Once you’ve scheduled a meeting with your team, create an agenda. Start with the goal of the meeting. Then, assign roles to each person. What do you need from the people in attendance. What do they need from you?

Formulating a thorough agenda before the meeting will keep you on track so that you aren’t tempted to drift into other areas that you don’t need to discuss.

#4. Spark Conversation

You invited everyone to the meeting for a reason. Getting each of those people involved in your agenda is important.

Spark conversation by asking questions. Get people talking so that you can get to the meat of the subject. You’ll resolve issues much faster this way, and make your meetings more productive overall.

#5. Set a Timer

If you have a hard time sticking to the allotted time for your meetings, set a timer. Knowing that you only have a half hour to discuss matters will help you stay on task and on point.

How Do You Stay Productive?

You have a lot going on. Staying on task and making meetings more productive is often easier said than done. With these tips, you’ll help your team feel reenergized by helping them get back to work faster. In turn, you’ll help keep your projects moving forward.

What other productivity tips for meetings do you have to share?

Author Profile

Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007 and again in 2010, 2013 and 2014.