Conducting an Effective Business Meeting

MEMORANDUM

Date:

To:

From:

Subject: Conducting an Efficient Business Meeting

Source:

Author: Unknown

Meetings consist of three or more individuals who gather to pool information, solicit feedback, clarify policy, seek consensus and solve problems. In an effort to effectively lead and facilitate our meetings I have done extensive research to help with this process. In this memo I have highlighted some key points that should help our facilitators properly conduct meetings for their departments.

Before the Meeting

In preparing for a meeting the facilitator should make sure that they have done the following:

Determining your purpose: This is imperative. By determining your purpose you figure out the objective of your meeting and if calling a meeting is even necessary

Deciding how and Where to Meet: This just clarifies if you intend to have a face-to-face meeting or a virtual meeting. Both require preparation. Make sure if you are meeting face-to-face that you reserve a meeting room. If you are having a web conference, make sure that you have the necessary equipment to facilitate the meeting.

Organizing an agenda: Prepare an agenda of topics to be discussed during the meeting. Make sure you include any reports or materials that participants should read in advance. To keep meetings productive, limit the number of agenda items. Remember, the narrower the focus, the greater the chances are for success. Consider putting items that will be completed quickly near the beginning of the agenda to give the group a sense of accomplishment. Save emotional topics for the end. You may also want to assign certain duties to team mates to help your meeting run more efficiently.

Inviting Participants: The number of participants is determined but the purposed of the meeting. If the meeting purpose is motivational, the number of participants is unlimited. Meetings about decision making should be kept to five or fewer...