Tired of meetings?  Really, these days who doesn’t have a notebook titled ‘Meetings that Should Have Been eMails’?

As project managers, we run a *lot* of meetings.  Are they necessary?  Mostly.  Do we like meetings?  Not really.  And yet, sometimes meetings are the fastest way to get everyone informed, to make decisions, and to do some team building.

There are ways to make people actually want to come to your meetings – to make them productive, focused, and even fun.  Here are some tips to keep your meetings running efficiently and effectively:

1.  Send an agenda the day before.  This means that you’ve actually thought about what you want to achieve, know who really has to be at the meeting, and can help people to come prepared.  (If someone else sent you a meeting invite with no agenda, ask for one.  Maybe you don’t need to be at that meeting – or maybe you need to prepare ahead of time – but it’s a valid request.) Be sure to include any outstanding action items (my experience has been that most action items get done the day before the meeting – when I send out the agenda with the reminders.)

2. Start and end the meeting on time.  If everyone isn’t there (and of course you’re not waiting for the main audience, for example you’re presenting to your CEO and she hasn’t arrived), start anyway.  They can read what they missed in the minutes.  If everyone is running to your meeting from another meeting and arrives late, just schedule the meeting to start 5 minutes later.  (You’re just sitting around waiting for people anyway, and this way people aren’t flustered when they arrive.)  If you’re not done at the end time of the meeting and *anyone* required for the meeting can’t stay, reschedule.  Don’t give people the idea that you don’t think they are important.

3. Begin with something fun, like a cartoon or a meme.  As a side benefit, if you do this for a minute or so at the beginning of the meeting and don’t show it again, it will encourage people to be on time.

4. Stick to the agenda.  If someone brings up a topic not on the agenda, either assign it to someone for later investigation or put it at the end of the agenda if you have time.  (If you sent the agenda out in advance, people should have responded immediately with any hot topics.)

5. Don’t let anyone run away with the meeting, or let  a few people monopolize the time with a discussion that can be held elsewhere.  Build yourself a catch phrase so you foreshadow the request to move on, and be sure to apply it fairly.  You can always give people action items to come back to the next meeting with information or send an email with the results of the discussion. [After two decades I still tell people to take it offline, but a recent article tells me that the phrase is passe.  If you have a better way to tell people in shorthand to figure it out without everyone else having to listen to it, please let me know!]

6. Pay attention to who is participating and who isn’t.  It can be hard to break in if there’s an enthusiastic person answering every question – be sure to ask the quiet folks for their opinions explicitly.

7. Remember that people pay attention to things in their own learning styles.

• Start with reading the agenda out loud
• If it’s an in-person meeting, bring a few hard copies of documents
• Screen share and/or use a whiteboard
• Have pictures and colors

8.  Review outstanding action items so people remember to do them and you can close them out. 

What if your corporate culture encourages meeting for everything and inviting the largest possible audience?

You have a few choices to help maintain your sanity:

• Try to reach agreement on the topic of the meeting before the meeting time, either one-on-one or in an email with the appropriate people.
• If there's no agenda for the meeting, propose one.
• Come prepared - there's no better way to get through the agenda fast
• Suggest non-meeting follow-ups for action items that are created from the meeting

What if people - either as part of the corporate culture, or individually - constantly schedule over other meetings and/or move meetings around at the last minute? 

This one is harder, especially if it's part of the culture.  But there are some avenues for relief:

• Propose another meeting time where everyone can attend
• Ask for the agenda and send your input via email if you feel your previously scheduled meeting was more important
• Tell the organizer that you will read the minutes and respond as necessary, but that you are already booked for the meeting time and will not be able to attend.

Want more tips and tricks?  There's a whole chapter on meetings and minutes in my book The Socially Intelligent Project Manager