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Effective Meetings
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If you are the leader, work diligently to ensure everyone’s thoughts and ideas are heard by guiding the meeting so that there is a free flow of debate with no individual dominating and no extensive discussions between two people. As time dwindles for each item on the distributed agenda, you may find it useful to stop the discussion, then quickly summarize the debate on that agenda item and move on the next item on the agenda.
When an agenda item is resolved or action is agreed upon, make it clear who in the meeting will be responsible for this. In an effort to bypass confusion and misunderstandings, summarize the action to be taken and include this in the meeting’s minutes.
Meetings are notorious for eating up people's time. Here are some ways of ensuring that time is not wasted in meetings:
Minutes record the decisions of the meeting and the actions agreed. They provide a record of the meeting and, importantly, they provide a review document for use at the next meeting so that progress can be measured – this makes them a useful disciplining technique as individuals' performance and non-performance of agreed actions is given high visibility.
The style of the minutes issued depends on the circumstances – in situations of critical importance and where the record is important, then you may need to take detailed minutes. Where this is not the case, then minutes can be simple lists of decisions made and of actions to be taken (with the responsible person identified). Generally, they should be as short as possible as long as all key information is shown – this makes them quick and easy to prepare and digest.
It is always impressive if the leader of a meeting issues minutes within 24 hours of the end of the meeting – it's even better if they are issued on the same day.
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In the next article in this section, we look at Ice Breakers - useful for helping people who don't know one-another communicate well together. To read this, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
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Empathic Listening - Going beyond active listening*
Assertiveness - Working WITH people not against them*
Delivering Great Presentations - Communicating effectively*
Managing Presentation Nerves - Coping with the fear within
Facilitation - Guiding an event through to a successful conclusion
Giving and Receiving Feedback - Keeping team member performance high*
360 Degree Feedback - Encourage teamwork and improve performance*
AIDA: Attention-Interest-Desire-Action - Inspiring action with your writing
Questioning Techniques - Asking questions effectively
Keep It Simple - Avoiding confusion and complexity*
Creating a Value Proposition - Clearly communicating benefits*
Dealing with Unfair Criticism - Responding rationally to unwarranted criticism*
Charts and Graphs - Choosing the right format
Chunking - Grouping information so it's more easily understood*
The Rhetorical Triangle - Making your writing credible, appealing and logical*
Role Playing - Preparing for difficult conversations and situations
Powers of Persuasion - Understanding the dos and don'ts of persuading*
Communicating in a Crisis - Don't shut down communication*
Communicating Internationally*
Cross Culture Communication - Collaborative efforts a must!*
Communicating in Your Organization
Communications Planning - Getting the right message over, in the right way*
Concept Attainment - Reaching a shared understanding of important ideas*
Jargon Busting - Communicating without creating barriers*
Neuro-Linguistic Programming - Achieving excellence in communication *
Delivering Bad News*
A full list of Mind Tools articles is available here.
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