But every business needs them.
Internal work meetings are a necessity for every company. No matter your industry, your teams need to meet in order to report progress, get informed and stay on the same page.
In fact, the National Statistics Council reports that “37% of employee time is spent in meetings, and 47% of employees consider too many meetings to be the biggest waste of time during the day–-more than social media or email.”
While you can’t change the fact that internal work meetings play a significant role in your company’s success, you can adjust your approach to them.
Here are some tips for holding amazing internal meetings that your employees will actually look forward to:
1. Start at the end. Holding an effective meeting requires that you know the end goal. A meeting that doesn’t achieve its goals is a wasted one. So begin with what you want to get out of the meeting, and build the agenda and discussion points from there. With the right information in front of participants in a centralized location, you’ll be able to make good decisions based on facts.
2. Use technology. Simplify the meeting process by using mobile technology that also allows everyone to participate. Through Magency, people can work better, keep meetings on track, collect ideas and see results happening in one place. When your team votes on agenda items, you can record the results, and always have a record of the meeting’s notes, decisions and outcomes. Later, every team member can refer back to the meetings.
3. Let everyone contribute and share ideas. By disrupting the classic format of having one leader dominate the discussion and the rest of the participants sitting silently by, you can change your meeting dynamics. Invert these roles, and allow — even encourage — participation and interaction from all stakeholders in real time.
4. Prioritize sharing. Let meeting participants share their feelings about various work situations, such as their doubts about a project. This strategy helps build interpersonal communication and can lead to effective employee engagement and overall improve the interchange of ideas and systems company-wide.
5. Start on time. Waiting for latecomers only encourages the behavior — and sends a signal to the people who are on time that they aren’t important. Begin the meeting when you said you would, and don’t review information latecomers have missed. They’ll get the message to show up on time and change their behavior.
6. End on time. For the same reasons that you want to start the meetings on time, you should also avoid going beyond the ending time. Be respectful of the meeting’s stop time and potentially disrupting other client meetings on your team’s agenda for the day. Keeping the meeting on track will help you end on time, too. You can do so by pressing the meeting participants for closure on agenda items and then moving onto the next topic for discussion.
Internal work meetings are a necessary, but good thing for your company. These six tips can help you hold successful, engaging meetings that help drive your company’s success.
By letting everyone contribute, starting with a goal, using effective mobile technology, prioritizing sharing, and starting and ending on time, you will rock your internal meetings.