Quick
Tips For Effective Noontime Meetings by Susan Keane Baker
There are some time-tested best practices
for effective noontime meetings. You
may be familiar with these –
are you using them?
Provide an opportunity for everyone
to contribute to the agenda. “Staff
meeting agenda items” box
that people can drop questions or
challenges into during the week.
Everything submitted 24 hours prior
to the meeting gets a place on the
agenda.
Pay attention to the details.
A clean meeting space, adequate
seating. Food helps.
Use a timed agenda and appoint
a timekeeper to keep the meeting
chair on track.
Keep a running list of actions
that have resulted from the noontime
meetings. Three months now, people
may forget that you decided to change
the type of trashcan liners. A running
list shows that the noontime meetings
get things done.
Establish and post some ground
rules. For example, “We start
and end on time. We listen with
respect to the opinions of others.”
Schedule meetings on a consistent
basis. It’s every Friday at
noon, or the second Wednesday of
every month. People can then make
appointments and take care of personal
errands on non-meeting days.
Ask attendees what they like
and dislike about your existing
meeting format. When one manager
did this, a staffer said that the
meetings had become 90% gripe sessions,
which she found discouraging. Others
hadn’t noticed until it was
brought up. They agreed that better
balance could be achieved by limiting
gripes to the first ten minutes
of the meeting, followed by positive
news or discussion.
If you invite a vendor to provide
lunch, respect the dignity of that
person by publicly acknowledging
his or her effort.
Find a way to recognize those
who attend regularly and those who
arrive on time. One medical center
publicizes that box lunches are
provided for the first thirty people
who arrive for the lunch time meeting.
(Attendance is encouraged, but not
mandatory.)
Communicate what happened at
the meeting to those who attended
and those who didn’t. Minutes
should clearly indicate action items,
and who is responsible for them.
The minutes should be used in creating
the agenda for the next item, so
that action items aren’t forgotten.
Consider rotating hosts for the
meeting. Create the list of responsibilities
associated with hosting, and recognize
each host.
You Are Welcome To Reprint This Article Please include the following text on your reprint:
Copied with permission of the author,
Susan Keane Baker.
Source: www.susanbaker.com.
If You Are Going To Publish This Article at Your Website Please use the following html code for the reference to our website:
Copied with permission of the author: Susan K. Baker - <a href="http://www.susanbaker.com">Speaker on Patient Satisfaction and Handling Patient Complaints</a>
Printer-Friendly Version