Not enough thought goes into facilitating meetings effectively in the business world. If they were very effective, we'd actually have less of them! Meetings should be a constructive process that a team looks forward to, not an awful, boring and unproductive waste of time. Organising a good one takes time, a bit of nous and a basic knowledge of how meetings and people should work. Here are the best ten tips to think about when arranging and planning your meeting.

Know your objective(s)

Is your meeting a routine one? If you have scheduled a weekly or monthly meeting and find that you're either rehashing the same issues or have nothing new to say, perhaps you're holding routines too often. Know what your objectives and ideal outcomes are BEFORE you hold the meeting - they are not to be discovered during it. Picture your ideal end result and decisions made and have that as the reason to hold the meeting. All too often we hold meetings to try and discover objectives. That's all well and good if it's a brainstorm or other creative process, but it generally wastes time in the business world.

Perfect Timing

If you hold your meeting last thing on a Friday afternoon, don't expect the highest attendance possible. The same goes for first thing on a Monday - people like to hit the ground running and won't have time to drop any potential backlog to join your meeting. Consider when key decision makers and leaders are available. Is the CEO going on holiday on Wednesday? Then don't hold the meeting as late as Tuesday as this will be a more stressful day for them. Think about your timing as an opportunity to increase attendance.

Check the venue

All too often we call a facilities manager or other third party who manages room bookings, they tell us a room's free and we take it. If it's possible, check out the room yourself. Sometimes you'll have to hold your meeting in any available space because of a shortage, but if you get a choice, consider some options. Is the weather great? Why not hold it outside for a morale boost as well as a screen break? Has a nice café opened across the street? Hold it in there and buy your colleagues a coffee (you don't have to make a habit of it, it just brightens up a normal routine task and you'll be surprised how many people turn up at the prospect of a free latte). Check things like space, air conditioning and the availability of refreshments. You want the meeting to be comfortable, not sleep inducing. If you need specialist equipment such as flipcharts, a whiteboard or projector, make sure you have room for them too and test the lines - there's nothing worse than having a dozen people lined up for a conference call only to pick up the phone and find that it's dead.

Attendees

Don't just invite everyone in the department or those involved with a project - pick your attendees. Inviting people who don't really need to be there causes them to become bored or feel like they have nothing to add. Involve key people who can make the decisions needed. If you're holding a meeting about improving a canteen, for example, invite the canteen manager and perhaps a staff member: get input from both management and at grassroots level.

Absentees

Try to get early notice on who won't be able to attend or who will be on holiday, having to work on something else, or be in another city when you're holding your meeting. This also helps you to get your "apologies" in early for the meeting minutes.

Preparing a good agenda

Have an agenda beforehand based on actions from the last meeting. Don't make it up during the meeting or you'll lose focus. Make sure attendees have a copy before they turn up, not while they are there. This enables them to think about issues they want to raise before they arrive and will result in more quality input. It also sets out how much time you have and what needs to be done by the end of the meeting, helping to keep everyone on track.

To lead or not to lead

If you're the person most suited to leading the meeting, then go ahead and do it. However, someone else may want to or you can take turns. Regardless, you can still ensure that everyone contributes (by gently interrupting someone who has been talking a while), make sure people get their break when scheduled and welcome people at the beginning, which is often missed out of meetings.

Keeping on track

Once you have an agenda - stick to it! You can address other issues as "any other business" and put them forward to the next meeting.

Minutes and summarising

Work with the minute taker, as they are one of the most important people in the meeting process. Make sure they provide you with the last minutes, for any outstanding actions and it will help you to create a new agenda. Note outstanding issues from last time and bring them forward. In some instances, meeting minutes are a legally required document (for example, charities and Limited companies), so make sure someone is there taking the minutes - it will be extremely hard to make up for it if someone discovers that this isn't being done.

Remember...

Meetings have a bad reputation, with the added joke that we just hold meetings in order to hold meetings, but by keeping focused on enjoyability, quality and being succinct, you can get a reputation of having productive meetings that your colleagues don't dread, but look forward to and you'll get the best out of everyone as a result. Happy meeting!