12 tactics for effective meetings

Meetings are essential components of the working world, serving to mark milestones and drive key decisions, but many of us dread the time and frequency required to “meet through” projects and issues.

Although there can be true value to meetings and group thought, impelling a meeting to fulfill its objectives can be an imprecise process. The 12 key steps presented below serve as guidelines to organize, establish, and execute efficient, effective meetings.

Upfront preparation may be intimidating, but the long-term benefits are considerable, namely: fewer follow-up meetings, streamlined processes, increased throughput, and increased visibility.

Try the steps below, and let us know your thoughts on what else facilitates efficient, effective meetings:

1. Identify whether a meeting is needed. Many organizations suffer from the “over-meeting” phenomenon, in which pre-meetings exist for pre-meetings for meetings. Though preparation is an important task, many pre-meeting tasks can be handled via email, IM, and targeted one-on-one chats that minimize group overhead.