What do genuinely effective meetings look like?

At many companies, meetings are still synonymous with uselessness, boredom and time wasted. But it need not be that way; you just need to follow certain basic rules. Whether you, the HR manager, want to give team leaders advice on how to lead meetings, or if you yourself want to make the meetings you organise more effective, you will appreciate the following advice on how this is done.

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Do not make meetings too long

According to the HR Morning website, meetings should be short and to the point. Three-hour sessions are just not effective: people struggle to pay attention for so long, even if there are breaks included. Focus on just a few key topics and do not try to solve all your company's issues during one single session.

Do not focus only on negative things

At many meetings, people speak only about problems. There is nothing bad about discussing problems, provided there is some balance in the form of praise for good work and other positive news. Do not focus only on negative things but also on some positives.

Invite only relevant attendees

For many people, meetings are often useless because the items being discussed do not concern them in any way. Invite to meetings only those people for whom the agenda has some genuine relevance.

Treat the meeting as a dialogue

Meetings should not just be monologues, but rather an interactive brainstorming session within which individual people can say what they want. The organiser of the meeting should listen to suggestions of other attendees, who might have interesting insights into various problems, thus making the meetings more appealing to all participants through active interaction.

 

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Article source HR Morning - American portal for HR managers
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