We Must Meet

From my experience so far, I learnt that one of the ways of carrying everyone along is through Meetings. Initially, my team members did not look forward to the meetings. The meetings were either too long or irrelevant discussions came up, or the meetings seemed to be like lectures. Knowing that I had the responsibility of conducting effective meetings, I had to change strategy.

Some of the things I learnt along the way are: -

1. Each team member surely has something to say. The meeting is an avenue where they can openly share their thoughts about the process and know what others think about it.
   
2. No suggestion is stupid.
   
3. Meetings should be planned. Agenda, time and venue should be communicated in advance. This would help people be prepared for the meeting.
   
4. The venue must be available. If you cannot get it done yourself, delegate.
   
5. Keep to time. The agenda should be such that time is allocated to each item. If something seems to take too much time, move the discussion to after everything in the meeting agenda has been covered or take it offline.
   
6. Always recap to ensure everyone got the objectives of the meeting.
   
7. Get action items and follow up on them.
   

For further information on how to conduct effective meetings, please visit here and here.