The prospect of a weekly staff meeting can elicit groans and eye rolls from just about every staff member. The problem isn’t the concept of a meeting – an opportunity for updates and creative thinking – it’s the effectiveness of the meeting. Just about everyone has sat through at least one meeting that seemed to have no direction, no purpose and no timeline.

Ineffective meetings are frustrating and eat into staff productivity. Yet meetings are necessary. They are important for the creative process and brainstorming as well as to keep staff members in the loop and apprised of ongoing and upcoming projects and tasks.

Meetings don’t have to be a mess. If you implement some meeting guidelines, you can turn your meeting into an efficient and streamlined process.

• Create an agenda. This will help you determine the focus of the meeting and give you a guide for staying on track. Don’t include more than five items on the agenda and fewer if some of those will elicit a lengthy discussion.
• Own your meeting. If you called the meeting or are in charge of the agenda/topic, keep the meeting on track. If a side conversation develops, bring the group back to the topic at hand. If a discussion veers off, it may be necessary to set that conversation aside and bring it back up in a separate meeting.
• Keep time. Start the meeting on time to be respectful of those who arrive on time. Prior to the meeting, determine about how much time each agenda item will need and then stick to that schedule. If you said the meeting would take one hour, end it at one hour.

Just following these three simple steps will add more structure and focus to your meetings. How do you keep meetings on track? What works for your business? Or do you have a meeting horror story to share? Let’s hear it!