Positive Meetings = Effective Meetings

As documented recently in a BBC article, making meetings ‘better’ is essentially common sense.  Have an agenda so attendees know why they are present and how they can contribute; let everyone present have a say, allowing for the introverts and extroverts in the group; and take away actions so that the meetings are purposeful.

At a recent Jewel Training & Development ‘How to lead effective meetings’ workshop we all agreed that the best meetings were those that are short and focused and most importantly Positive and Action driven.

So I thought I would share our structure for positive meetings:

1. What has gone well this week / this month / yesterday? (looking for positive outcomes)
2. What didn’t go so well? Anything that was a challenge which we need to address.
3. What can we improve? Dealing positively with challenges.
4. Actions for the next week / month / day. Assigning people, tasks and dates to all actions, and making sure these are followed up on at the subsequent meeting.

Starting positively for EVERY meeting as much as possible sets a more motivating tone for staff and the culture of a business.

I read a comment from Damian Hughes @LiquidThinker the other day who said “Focus on performance and you’ll get performance, for a time.  Focus on culture and performance, and you’ll build something special and sustainable”

Positive meetings is just the start to creating culture in your company / team.

If this is of interest to you, you may want to look at our ILM courses which cover this subject and more.