How to Avoid an Unprofitable Meeting

I'm certain it has happened to more than one of us in more than one instance throughout our professional lives: the scenario of sitting in a meeting and wondering what the purpose of the meeting is exactly - the scenario you want to avoid in planning a meeting of your own. In many cases, an unprofitable meeting is worse than no meeting at all: it leaves your attendees wondering if you have any idea what you are doing or if you just like to call meetings for the sake of doing so. All of which can be avoided by running through this quick checklist prior to planning your meeting.

1. Evaluate the Purpose Behind Your Meeting

• Challenge yourself by asking if there is a need to hold a meeting in the first place.
• Consider whether the information might be suitably presented in a memo, email or conference call.
• The worst meetings are those that leave attendees wondering why the meeting was even called to begin with.

2. Be Certain You are Conveying the Desired Message

• Recognize the issues that need to be discussed and present them in an organized manner
• Focus on driving across one point at a time, instead of jumping all over the place when conducting the meeting.
• Ask if there are any questions or concerns before moving on to the next section of the meeting to ensure that the message was well received and without confusion.
• It is best not to include more than one main message of a meeting. For instance, a meeting focusing on quarterly reports would not be the best time to introduce new insurance premium options, as it would take away from the focus of the reports.
• In such an instance, you would refer back to number 1 and consider presenting the new insurance premium options through an interoffice memo or email, noting that you would be available for consultation should any questions or concerns arise.

3. Avoid Introducing an Abundance of Elements

• Showcasing too many components at a meeting can distract from the purpose of the message being conveyed.
• Steer clear of dispensing an abundance of handouts, which can lead to side conversations about the literature or distraction in reading it instead of being attentive to the meeting. If it is necessary to provide an abundance of literature, try to dispense the bulk of it at the close of the meeting, instead of at the beginning or throughout.
• Avoid scheduling too many guest speakers or presenters; for example, do not schedule a representative from each department in the company to present at one single, giant meeting. It may seem like a great strategy to utilize everyone being in the same room at the same time but in such an instance, too much information is delivered, leading to the possibility of the attendees missing out on most of it.

4. Perform Post-Meeting Evaluations

• Generate a short survey to hand out at the conclusion of the meeting for attendees to submit comments.
• To achieve the goal of obtaining the most honest feedback, leave the survey anonymous so that attendees feel comfortable in responding (no one is going to knowingly tell you that they found your meeting to be about as useful as an expired coupon - let's hope, anyway).
• These surveys are a great tool not only in judging the success of your meeting, but also in possibly providing you little nuggets of wisdom to consider in future meeting planning.

In planning any meeting, the main goal should be ensuring that it is a profitable one. After all, who sets out with the goal of conducting a senseless meeting? Of course, none of us do but the sad realization is that even a well-planned meeting has the potential of becoming an unprofitable one. By utilizing these tips, however, the potential for an unprofitable meeting will greatly diminish.