Meeting scheduling

An effective meeting in 8 steps

Planning a meeting: roadmap for an effective meeting

Meetings; a necessary evil within every organization or a good way to guide business processes in the right direction? Which of the two it becomes depends mainly on how a meeting is organized.

Nothing in business is more tedious than meetings for the sake of meetings. A meeting with a concrete purpose and structure from start to finish helps an organization or team move forward. To avoid irritation and lead a successful meeting as chairperson, this step-by-step plan offers help in organizing a meeting.

The purpose of the meeting

To avoid useless meetings, good preparation is key. When organizing a meeting, it is essential to determine in advance what the purpose of the meeting is.

In addition, it is important to determine the stakeholders well in advance. Who should be present at the meeting for the meeting to be effective? Who should not attend? After all, when it comes to the number of participants in a meeting, less is more.

A convenient date and time

Bringing all the essential stakeholders together with all the busy personal schedules requires some planning skills. Although it is not an impossible obstacle. If the company uses a collective calendar, such as Google Calendar, for example, a suitable date is easily found.

In addition, setting a start and end time is important. Setting a proper time frame ensures that people know where they stand. This way, the meeting does not become unnecessarily drawn out and remains effective. An overly long, never-ending meeting requires too much effort from the participants, resulting in a loss of concentration.

Be sure to send out a Teams meeting invitation or link via email well in advance of the meeting. This way, all colleagues are informed about the meeting in time.

A concrete content with specific agenda items

Creating a concrete agenda that includes specific agenda items is important to making a meeting a success.

Give all stakeholders the opportunity to shoot in agenda items. Make sure the agenda items do align with the intended purpose of the meeting. Set a deadline for submitting agenda items. After this deadline it is no longer possible to submit or change agenda items.

During the meeting, the chair ensures that each agenda item is covered and the note taker takes minutes of the meeting.

An inspiring meeting venue

Obviously, the most obvious meeting location is one's own office or a Teams meeting from home. Research shows that meeting in an external location boosts productivity. Meeting externally can have a big effect on the outcome of the meeting.

The more out-of-the-box the location is, the more surprising the outcomes of the meeting will be. Castles, farms, golf courses, estates: just some examples of an inspiring meeting location that will surprise you.

Supplies during the meeting

For the meeting to run effectively, it is important to have some supplies on hand and checked in advance:

A monitor, stable internet, flip charts, different colored pens, notebooks; obvious necessities to make a meeting a success. AtTespelduyn we take care of this. In addition, all participants can make use of unlimited coffee, tea, water and soft drinks.

A good start is half the battle

A suitable date, relevant agenda items and an inspiring location picked out where all the necessities are present? Are you then ready to go? Not quite yet, there are still some preparations needed for a successful meeting.

Beforehand, it is wise to think about what form the meeting will take. A meeting generally has four forms: brainstorming, instructional meeting, informational meeting and a decision-making meeting. The form depends on the purpose of the meeting although a meeting can also take several forms.

In addition, meeting setup is an underrated part. In what way do you want participants to communicate with each other? Then which setup lends itself best to that? Do you go for a U-shape or is a theater setup more appropriate?

Once all preparations have been made, the invitations can be sent out! This invitation will communicate the agenda items, purpose and expectations. This allows stakeholders to prepare properly for the meeting.

The meeting

During the meeting, the most important thing is to clearly reflect the division of labor. As chairman, your job is to lead the meeting and monitor the agenda.

Here the established time schedule is leading in order not to let the meeting run out. If the meeting seems to be running late, it is the chairman's job to speed up the pace of the meeting. If possible, you can briefly and forcefully address outstanding agenda items.

End each meeting with a list of action items with associated responsibilities and deadlines. Send these via e-mail to attendees after the meeting. This way, the outcome of the meeting is easily visible and all participants know what needs to be done before the next meeting.

Also, the end of the meeting is the perfect time to schedule a new meeting with the attendees. You can communicate this new date directly via email.