Introduction
No matter what anyone tells you, the office is not dead. Even though more and more businesses are adopting hybrid working, the opportunity to travel to HQ and meet in person is still a much wanted and needed option.
With face-to-face time more precious than ever, it’s important to make the most of it when it happens.We’ve put together some tips to ensure that your in-person meetings provide the greatest return on investment for your time and effort.
Have an agenda
We’ve all attended meetings that go off track because they don’t have a structure or an aim. Make sure you know what you’re trying to achieve from the meeting to make it so much easier to get the outcome that you need and want. It’s also important to ensure that every person attending the meeting has a goal – you don’t want them sitting there wondering why they canceled their lunch appointment for this.
You’ll need at least a facilitator and a note-taker for your biggest meetings. Make sure the most important agenda items are prioritized – that way if attendees need to move on, or if the meeting runs over, then they don’t get forgotten.
Keep things on track
Every team has that person who could ramble on forever if you let them. Slight diversions and going off track in a meeting happens, and it’s part of the normal flow of conversation. It’s also an important part of bonding with colleagues and informal conversations.
However, no matter how fascinating last night’s TV was, always bring the conversation back to the work agenda to ensure that things don’t overrun or risk missing your agenda points.
Accommodate as many people as possible
There is strength in diversity and gathering the opinion of as many people as possible can lead to better, more relevant action points. But what if that person with the killer idea can’t make your in-person meeting?
If you’ve adopted a hybrid working model, try to be accommodating for those who work remotely or aren’t as close to the office as other people. Use technology to bring people together at the same time in the same place. Could you meet somewhere more convenient (a third workplace) rather than the office?
Prepare people to listen actively
Here’s another meeting stereotype: the person who talks a lot, asks for an opinion, then switches off completely. It’s a stereotype that appears in too many meetings and can block better ideas from getting off the ground and reaching a solution.
Active listening involves listening deeply, and solely, to the speaker. Active listeners live in the moment, taking in the speaker’s words, gestures and facial expressions, rather than simply waiting for their turn to speak. It’s not only polite, but a crucial part of getting the best from your in-person moments.
Don’t make your meeting a prison sentence
Ensure that you have set your meeting for the right time – 4pm on a Friday is probably not the most productive time to have an important decision-making gathering.
Try not to include any overly-detailed slides in your presentation – as people will become overwhelmed with information and tune out. And try to keep people limited to the five-minute rule of talking. When people start looking at their watches it’s probably time to wrap things up.
Leave with actions
A meeting that leads to nothing is a nothing meeting, right? Be sure to categorize the important takeaways and action items and share them with the attendees as soon as you can after the meeting. Make these notes accessible to everyone.
Assign actions to specific people and set deadlines for these actions to be completed if needs be. If anything was benched due to time or it not being quite on-topic, make sure these issues are raised another time.
