There are some key steps to ensure you’re ready for an effective meeting. Preparation is key to success in meetings, whether it’s for a planning session or an employee review.
Make your agenda, and provide any reading materials that you would like participants to read prior. Communicating these materials ahead of time helps ensure that everyone has an understanding of the gathering and is able to participate effectively. Include these in your invitations or share them through internal comms. Make sure you’re clear about what’s a must-read and what’s good to have.
Prepare for any obstacles that may be encountered during the meeting and develop a strategy for how to address these. Waiting to raise these issues during the meeting can result in the waste of meeting time as everyone tries to keep up to date on a problem that could have been solved earlier.
Don’t forget to set up the process of recording and sharing meeting minutes and any other documents. Implementing this will ensure that the momentum continues after the meeting, and will ensure that online data room providers all participants are aware of what was discussed and agreed upon in the meeting.
End the meeting with an outline of the main takeaways. This will make everyone feel confident about the next steps needed to advance the discussion or project ahead. This is an excellent way to close the meeting and let everyone feel that they are part of an integrated team capable of achieving its objectives.