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7 tips to plan effective meetings

by | May 24, 2016 | Best Meeting Practices, Productivity

Last Updated on 13 January 2022

Are you a project manager who is tired of meetings that go in circles and don’t result in any concrete decisions? Here are 7 tips to plan effective meetings that will help you simplify the administrative task, gain productivity and accomplish all your projects.

Beenote is a meeting management solution that allows you to easily put each of these tips into practice! Your meetings will never have been so efficient!

1- Establish a clear objective

This step is essential. If your meeting has no defined objective, participants will wonder what justifies their presence. If they don’t understand why they are there, there is little chance they get involved. If they don’t participate, your meeting will not be the most effective. If you want to run a productive meeting, you absolutely need to clarify the objective, as recalled Julie Blais Comeau.

2- Review the list of participants

Don’t forget to review your participants’ list before sending invitations. If you want to plan effective meetings, make sure that the participants bring a real contribution. If they feel like they have nothing to do in a meeting, participants might be tempted to think about their weekend or their car problems.

3- Assign tasks to participants

Before each meeting, good preparation is essential. Though, remember you’re not the only one needing preparation. Assigning tasks to participants before a meeting allows them to prepare well. When people are well prepared, they don’t hesitate to get involved.

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4- Be on time!

Always start your meeting on time. Don’t wait for stragglers, they will eventually get the message and make efforts to arrive on time. They won’t be comfortable interrupting a meeting where people already discuss.

Need a funny/effective trick to attract anyone? In your invitation mention that coffee and muffin will be served. The stomach of the participants will certainly guide them to the meeting room.

Plan effective meetings

5- Respect the scheduled time

You have scheduled a one-hour meeting, make sure to do a one-hour meeting. Carefully follow the points on the agenda and stick to the time you have allotted. If someone monopolizes the meeting with his ideas not that relevant, don’t hesitate to remind him politely that there are other topics to discuss.

Beenote Agenda templates gif

6- Document the key moments

You will avoid many problems by taking notes every time a task is assigned or a decision is made. To save even more time, you could record your meeting. This option, which sometimes we tend to forget, can be very useful in the case of a dispute or a misunderstanding. Remember that Beenote allows you to record all the key moments of your meeting. Enjoy this practical functionality!

7- Write meeting minutes

By writing meeting minutes, you can keep track of all decisions taken and tasks assigned. In case of a disagreement on a subject, you can easily make verifications. No time to write meeting minutes? No problem! Beenote will do it automatically for you! Once it is done, you only have to share it by email.

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Using these tips, you will plan effective meetings and you will reach your goals. With Beenote you can easily put these tips into practice.

Change the world, one meeting at a time®

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