Productive meetings seem to be a bit of a myth for many, and if you ask pretty much any executive, they’ll tell you meetings are more often than not boring, unproductive and inefficient. Many times, you’ll leave the room feeling like you’ve wasted two hours of your life that you’ll never get back and that you could have spent being productive.
This general feeling shouldn’t mean that meetings have to stop altogether or that a company doesn’t need them. In fact, meetings are the right place to brainstorm and give feedback. A successful meeting is possible, and it all comes down to strong planning.
A productive meeting is one that stays on topic, but how can you stay on topic if you aren’t sure what the topic even is? This is where meeting agendas come into play. They aren’t difficult to plan out, and won’t take you too long to craft up. Most importantly, even if you do take a lot of time planning out your meeting agenda, you’re making sure the meeting itself happens in the most efficient way possible.
The steps are simple. First, open the meeting reviewing the agenda for the day. This way, everyone will be on the same page. Then, address each topic according to their priority level. That’s it. Pretty easy, huh? Ready to try it out?