Tips to Successful Company Meetings
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Ten Tips to Plan and Conduct Company Meetings Successfully
Getting people cooped in a room and holding their attention is no easy task and if you have been entrusted with the responsibility of planning the periodic meetings of your company, then your job is a challenging one. Many of us abhor the idea of spending hours in a closed environment listening to speakers delivering their speeches and always wish to get it over with soon.
Company meetings are normally held when departmental heads have to share information with their groups or have to induct new employees into the organization. People prefer meetings which encourage interaction with information being shared through audio-visual means, but get bored with monologues delivered by one person.
Given below are ten tips that will help you better manage such meetings such that the interest of the target audience is constantly stimulated.
a) Plan to commence meetings with an ice-breaker
When you have strangers meeting for the first time in a room, it is important for them to get to know each other and that can be achieved through a short ice-breaker session. You can ask them a simple general question which none among the audience would mind answering and this would serve as a good warm-up activity prior to the actual meeting. However, be sure to allocate an appropriate amount of time for this, as you do not want the meeting to stretch because a certain member takes up too much time in the sharing.
b) Vary your means of presentation
It is very much possible that the audience gets bored of monologues from the various speakers. There is need to spice up the meeting by getting people involved, and this can be done by making them form small groups, assigning team tasks, or making use of interactive presentation media. Get feedback from them on specific reports and surveys so that they are forced to think and participate.
c) Get speakers from different organizations to speak
You will do well to invite speakers from either your customer base or other non-profit companies that receive donations from your company to talk about their experiences. They will prove to be very effective and interesting speakers for the audience.
d) Motivate and persuade the audience to ask questions
You can ask the people gathered to be free to note down questions that they may be having and assure them that there would be a question – answer session that they can participate in with the associated speaker. It is not necessary that you or the speakers would have all the answers; you can always tell them that you will revert to them with the answers at the earliest. However, make sure that if questions on a particular topic take up too much time, inform the audience that a meeting on that topic could be organized and they can get all the answers in that session.
e) Understand the questions asked
One good tip is to request the person asking a question to repeat it loudly enough so that this person realizes that his question has been heard by the appropriate person. It also sends out a positive signal to others in the audience to ask questions and helps them know the question asked more clearly, rather than them making their own assumptions.
f) Identify specific issues for each meeting
When you have a lot of information to convey, it is difficult to cramp it all in a single meeting. Therefore split it up such that the most important ones get the first priority and fix the meeting taking into consideration the conveniences of the target audience. You need to use all modes of communicating and disseminating company matter and not rely only on formal meetings to do so.
g) Preparation of the agenda needs to be meticulously done
The requirement and interests of the participating audience needs to be considered prior to formulating the agenda for the meeting. It is prudent to start the meeting on a positive note by sharing useful or interesting information. The order in which speakers take the podium every month for these meetings also needs to be shuffled so that there is no predictability. Issues discussed should also be circulated to everybody towards the end of the meeting so that they do not lose interest and forget what was discussed.
h) Importance of agenda and sticking to timing
One of the articles in the famous Wall Street Journal referred to what US managers should be doing right to save time when they call for meetings. The first was the importance of setting an agenda and the second was to commence the meeting on time and also end it at the time specified, without prolonging it. Speakers must also be requested to keep to the time duration they have been allotted and not exceed it. If need be, you need to be firm and impose the time limit.
i) Arrangement of the meeting infrastructure
You have to ensure that the tables and chairs are laid out such that the audience is focused on the meeting. Adequate chairs, notepads for taking notes, a smooth surface to take notes, clarity of visuals and audio, microphone facilities and so on are some of the bare essentials for every meeting and these needs to be set up properly.
j) Need for proper food delivery and catering
It is a fact that food plays a very important role in making the audience comfortable and helps them remain active through the meeting. It helps lighten the atmosphere and encourages bonding among the members. You have to make sure that you cater to the food habits of the participating audience. Ensure that fruit and yoghurt along with doughnuts and hot dogs are offered as these are perennial favorites. Keep the vegetarians and Muslims in mind as well and cater according to their dietary requirements.