Meetings are a part of the business world. In fact, if you’re a middle manager, you may be spending as much as 35 percent of your time in meetings, and if you’re in upper management, it can be a whopping 50 percent. Unfortunately, research shows that most meetings are actually ineffective and leave employees confused and frustrated.
One way to alleviate that frustration is by keeping your meetings on schedule. However, this can sometimes be hard to do. Perhaps you get flustered or you have a hard time keeping a group of employees under control. Before your next meeting, consider these ideas to stay on time and on track.
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Create an agenda and keep it small. One big reason why meetings go over is a lack of an agenda. If you don’t prepare for your meeting, you can waste a lot of time or think of an important issue toward the end of your meeting, causing it to run over.
When planning your agenda, consider the following:
— Your main objective
— Order of importance of your talking points
— How much time you should allot for each item
Trying to fit too much material into a meeting is another sure way to run over. Instead of cramming a lot of talking points into one meeting, plan on talking for only half of the allotted time. For example, if you have planned a 45-minute meeting, determine which two to three items on your agenda you really need to discuss with your employees, and which items could wait until next time or possibly even be resolved via email.
Covering less items will allow time for:
— Questions
— Concerns
— Input
— Interruptions
Have a “no electronic devices” policy. Sometimes running over is due to some people having to attend to other matters during the meeting. To avoid this, try implementing a “no electronic devices” policy.
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To do this, try saying something like this at the beginning of your meeting: “I appreciate you all being here and I know how valuable your time is. To keep us all on schedule today, I’d like to encourage everyone to put their devices on silent or off if possible.”
Of course, sometimes using these devices is unavoidable, but if you or an employee needs to take a call during a meeting, make sure that they are only for urgent matters. This will encourage engagement, keeping your meeting from having long periods of silence that could cause it to run long.
Don’t let others take over. If you let someone else take over your meeting, this can cause you to run over. When you plan your agenda, determine how much time you have for comments and questions after a talking point. Here are a few things to watch:
— If you have a hard time keeping track of the sections of your meeting, try using your phone’s timer.
— When deciding who to give comments or questions to, know which employees tend to talk too much or go off on tangents. Try to avoid giving the room to those employees.
— Preface the questions and comments part of your agenda by saying something like, “Today we only have time for two short questions or comments, but I encourage you all to send me an email today if your question isn’t addressed.”
Start on time. Maybe the reason your meetings run late is because you start them late. To start on time, plan on arriving to the meeting place 15 minutes early. If you are giving the meeting, you should be the first one there.
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Arriving early gives you time to set up, greet employees and collect your thoughts. Starting on time will encourage punctuality and will also ensure you can cover your talking points in the allotted meeting time.
Finally, there is one last question you should consider. Do you really need to have a meeting? Since we are so used to attending meetings, sometimes we are used to having a meeting for everything. But really, the easiest way to keep your meeting on target is by skipping it altogether! Determine what your objectives for your upcoming meeting are. Ask yourself:
— Do my talking points really require a sit-down meeting?
— Does my objective call for everyone’s input or just a few key personnel?
— Could I resolve this with an email instead?
If all three of these questions lead to not needing to have a big meeting, you’ve saved your colleagues, and yourself, some valuable time.
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What to Do When Your Meetings Always Run Too Long originally appeared on usnews.com
