How to keep on track
He is also the author of When There Are Too Many Lawyers … There Is No Justice. The leadership shown in the minutes will repay the investment many times over.Īlan Manly is an entrepreneur with extensive experience owning and managing small and medium-sized businesses. Have minutes that really make sense to a stranger or a regulator or the tax man or - heaven forbid - a judge.īy following these guidelines you will achieve desired outcomes which ensure that your meetings will not be a memory test or an office bun fight. The better the minutes, the better your memory. You may have read in the media of company directors in court, reflecting unsuccessfully on what was discussed in a meeting five years ago. Make sure you understand the intent of the agenda item, key points of discussion, and what was finally decided upon. Once the minutes are accepted, it is what you agreed to. This not only assists the speaker to stay on message, it does everyone a favour, including the secretary who will have a skeleton to build on the meeting discussion. Insist that each speaker has a brief paper or at least prepare notes of what they are going to discuss. Have each agenda item assigned to a meeting member who is able to speak to the issue. Each item on the agenda should be run as if it were a separate meeting. Items on the agenda must be given serious consideration and be shown to have been considered. Then move in for total control of the meeting. Start on time and let the others learn that they will fall behind if they are late. It's not the five or 10 minutes that you are focusing on, it's the leadership reflects. If anyone excuses themselves from the meeting for any reason, the minutes should record the time of leaving and returning. Keep these main principles in mind during meetings large and small, and there will be nary a grumble or an eye roll when you announce the next meeting.
#HOW TO KEEP ON TRACK HOW TO#
Apologies need to be recorded along with late arrivals. To keep your meetings on track and helpful, you’ll need to learn how to manage time effectively and how to make sure all participants feel as though their voices are being heard. This sets the tone that the meeting is serious. Being smart and quick-witted may work against you in your meeting. Others of course may sleep less when they see the agenda. You will also sleep better if all the news - good and bad - is aired in the meeting. It will give you and others in the meeting a firm guideline of what is expected to be discussed. Don't be afraid to itemize every issue that you want discussed. If you are running a meeting, put all the issues that you want discussed on the agenda. That's why issues to be discussed are listed as items on the agenda. So, how can you turn meetings from a cost into a company asset? The most obvious element missing in such meetings is leadership. Action items are carried over from one meeting to the next. To assess the quality of a meeting, go no further than the official minutes: Agenda items are loosely worded. Many companies have a tendency to gravitate toward their objectives by the sheer momentum of the organization, with or without the meetings. The thought of socializing with fellow staff and being paid at the same time is sure to keep meetings a popular distraction to lonely work routines. Meetings often become a work-based social function on company time and at company cost.