How to Run a Successful Management Meeting

Why Are Meetings So Important?

As project managers, it is essential for us to excel in organizing and facilitating effective meetings. Meetings are crucial to the success of any project. Effective meeting management requires the ability to enhance meeting productivity, minimize the time invested, and foster strong relationships and communication among attendees. However, even with careful planning, achieving these goals can be quite challenging, requiring both skill and diplomacy. The following meeting fundamentals may seem obvious, but if you follow them, meetings will not only be more productive, but more enjoyable as well.

Meeting Fundamentals

When you run a management meeting, your goal is to lead a group of people through a defined agenda with clear goals, in a way that everyone understands why they are ther and what their role is.

Prepare for The Meeting

Preparation is an important first step to productive meetings. Collect and review project information such ss issue logs, change requests, recent status reports and newly identified risks before the meeting. If possible, prepare your presentation materials a few days in advance and then refine them just before presentation. If you are going to identify problems, prepare some recommended solutions. If you are asking for help, be explicit about what is needed and when. Prepare an agenda for the meeting that includes topics, names of presenters, and time allocated to each topic.

Meeting Structure

Meeting Objective

Every meeting should have a written objective. This should be established in advance of the meeting and stated in an agenda. If a meeting objective is not clearly defined, the result is much more likely to be aimless rambling, what is called a non-directed discussion.

Meeting Agenda

You should prepare an agenda for every meeting no matter how routine. If possible, communicate the agenda to participants in advance so they have time to think and prepare. The agenda should state the meeting objectives as well as discussion topics, speakers, and time limits. For each topic item, determine whether the objective is to inform, decide, identify issues, or just to have a nice chat. If you weren’t able to print an agenda, use a white board or flip chart to establish the agenda and get agreement when the meeting starts.

Time Management

The start and end times for your meeting should be stated in the agenda and should be enforced. If the discussion is productive and looks to be going over the time limit, ask for a vote on whether to continue, re-convene, or spin-off to a smaller group for more focused discussion.

Attendance

An ideal meeting would contain four to seven people. A meeting for informational purposes would be more conducive for a larger audience. Invite those who need to be present to participate in the meeting as well as those who need to be informed about the subject or key issue stakeholders. (Once you get the meeting attendees present, try to identify a few people who have more important things to do, let them describe their objectives for the meeting, assign someone to represent their interests, and let them go.)

Documentation

Meeting notes should be recorded during the meeting by an assigned recorder and distributed to participants within a few days after the meeting. The meeting notes should include key points of the meeting, action items created with the responsible participants, and decisions made. Action items, deadlines, and the responsible participants should be highlighted in the minutes. Preparing minutes for routine meetings may not always be necessary. However, if decisions have been made or action items assigned, make sure they are documented.

Facilitator

The meeting must have a facilitator explicitly assigned, to keep the meeting moving and on track with the agenda. The facilitator is responsible for starting and ending the meeting on time. The facilitator may clarify and summarize key points from individuals as the meeting progresses from one presenter to the next. At the end of the meeting, the facilitator should provide a quick verbal meeting summary. This summary will include how the goals of the meeting were achieved.

Conclusion

Project managers spend a majority of their time facilitating meeting and have to be organized with meeting agenda, topics, action items and follow-ups after the meeting. It also requires soft skills such as creating an open and positive environment for your attendees. If you master the art of meeting management, it will reflect professionalism, expertise, and confidence.

Next Steps: Download the Project Meeting Template

Download this free Meeting Notes Template to assist you with creating a meeting agenda, meeting topics and action items for your next meeting. Customize it to your unique project needs.