A Quick Guide To Successful Meeting Planning And Organization

In terms of successful or effective company meeting planning, what it really comes down to is planning, but planning loose. If you've thought you would allot exactly X amount of minutes to this subject, and X amount of minutes to that subject, you're not actually going to get anywhere with the discussion, since you may be just seconds away from a breakthrough only to have to stop discussing it because you're out of time. Breakthroughs aren't made on a restrictive time frame.

So plan your meetings in a cohesive, tight manner. Simple plans can make for complex, dynamic meetings. In fact, it's better to go with a simple plan. Think of a thriller movie. A story with a simple premise can twist and turn in hundreds of ways, while a complicated idea takes so long to explain that there's no time left to actually throw any plot twists in there! So here are a few tips to take into account the next time you take a moment to plan a meeting.

Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

Are you really going to solve every single problem your company has in a single meeting? Of course not. Keep a meeting focused on ONE subject, not several. MAYBE two subjects, but only move on to the second after you've resolved the first. You need to make major decisions at these meetings, and the fewer the better, since you want the best decisions, not rush jobs. Know what you're going to do and say at the meeting, and do it, don't go nuts with it or you'll be in the conference room for the rest of the week.

Stay Focused

Set one goal, let your people know what that goal is, and achieve it during the meeting. Just one goal. If you give them a dozen things to do, they won't know where to start, so give them just one goal and they'll march right towards it over the course of the meeting. Again, it's all about focus and simplicity. When we over-complicate everything, it tends to show a lack of confidence, as if more planning will make up for a lack of skill or competency. To a true master, everything is made simple.

Meet Around Noon

Or whenever the mid-day is for your organization. You don't want to do it in the morning or else you have a number of grumpy people who really don't want to be here. After lunch, everyone gets slow and sluggish having just had big meals. Around the mid-day is when your people have had their coffee, they've woken up, and they're ready to actually provide their own options while at the same time listening during the meeting, as opposed to just zoning out looking forward to their first cup of joe.