A business meeting is a gathering of two or more people for the purpose of making decisions or discussing company objectives and operations.

Preparation

For an efficient and productive meeting we have to be sure that there are contents and discussions that deserve to be faced in the meeting.
- no useless meeting are allowed!!
We should think in advance about what kind of meeting we would like to have and act in consequence
- informative meeting, informal meeting, brainstorming, updating meeting... etc...

It is useless and unproductive to organize meetings without anything to talk about.

Time management

Meetings have to start on time, it is prove of respect for other participants
Planning the day is very important for any member of a company, so it is very useful to schedule the begin and the end of the meeting.
It is necessary to be sure that all the participants will be present at the meeting on time.

Meeting costs

Meetings are time-consumption, every meeting has a cost in time terms.
The organization of the meeting and the meeting itself take the time that the participants and the organizators could use doing something else. It is crucial that the time spent for meetings will be efficiently and effectively used and that the benefits are greater than the costs.
When we analize the costs of the meeting we should consider not only the hourly rate that the participants and the organizators dedicate to the meeting, but also the "hardware costs" related to the meeting room, technologies employed, information costs, catering etc.

Environment

Whatever is the type of the meeting we want to organize we should choose an appropriate room and environment that could make the interaction easier and more effective
The meeting should be organized in an appropriate room in terms of size, technologies and space organization according to the kind of meeting and its goals.

Types of meeting

Meetings are organized for different purpose and can assume different shape

Reasons for a meeting

Companies, enterprises, and any kind of public and private institution use to organize and plan meetings for different reasons and objective.
We can distinguish 6 main meeting purposes:

Status Update Meeting

The participants of the meeting inform others and update them about the status of their work.
All the participants take stock of the situation and go on with their process in a coordinated way

Decision-Making Meeting

Managers can organize meetings in which important strategic decisions are taken.
In some of these meeting decision are taken through a decision process, in some other reasons participants will be asked to vote for the option they think is better for the company

Problem-Solving Meeting

The aim of this kind of meeting is to solve one or more specific problem.
Participants of this meeting will be asked to bring their capacities and knowledge to solve those problems

Team-Building Meeting

This kind of meeting is aimed to engage the participants in the project and to create good relationship and knowledge between them.
If people have good relationship with their counterparts and they know other people mindset and backgrounds they will be more productive and loyal to the project

Ideas-Sharing Meeting

It is a sort of brainstorming in which participants share of new ideas and discuss them all together

Innovation Meeting

Also in this case we have a brainstorming dealing with new ideas, but the aim is to innovate the actual business

Types of meeting

Meetings can assume different shape. We can distinguish:

Online Meeting

Very trendy nowadays are meetings which are not held in person but every participant attend the meeting with a webcam and a pc from different place through a conference software

Traditional Meeting

The meeting is held in a room in which participants are invited and they interact. Those meetings can be more or less interactive according to the outcome that the meeting organizators want to reach

Conference

Conferences are big meetings, in which usually there are few people presenting their communications and a wider crowd that listen and get informed. The interaction between message sender and receiver is reduced to a minimum

Informal Meetings

Meetings don't have always to be boring and unpleasant. Meetings can be organized in informal situations inside or outside the office. Work issues and solutions can be discussed even at the bar drinking a pint of beer with the colleagues

Meeting Process

Meetings are for companies and enterprises the moment in which all the members of a team, or the participants of a project meet up all together and share their ideas about how to improve what they are doing, they can coordinate their actions and update other participants about their intake and progresses.
- Sharing ideas, giving feedbacks and listen to other people's opinion help the participants of a project to improve their work.
- Listening a feedback from others is always a good confirmation about our job or an alarm bell if we are following the wrong path.
Meetings should be the opportunity for companies/enterprises to plan and schedule business process.
- Every activity and task can be discussed during the meetings in a cross-departmental context.
Goals and achievements can be determined and planned.
Only after that all the participants of the meeting agree on the points treated during the meeting they can start to work on the task of their competence in a coordinated and more efficient way.
- It is important that all the departments and functions work synchronized in order to achieve goals in a harmonic way
For every goal should be scheduled a temporary window in which the goal should be achieved by the responsible person.

Invitation

It is crucial to invite only the necessary people at the meeting, people who can’t carry any improvement to the project should be not invited .
- “Consider who can help you accomplish your goal and who will be affected by the meeting’s outcome. Identify key decision makers, people who are knowledgeable about (or have a stake in) the topic at hand, those who need to be informed in order to do their jobs, and anyone who will be required to implement decisions made.” - Harvard Business Review
Meeting organizers should involve other key participants in choosing the meeting attendants.
The less participants will attend the meeting, the more they will feel involved in the meeting and in the action.
The best way to invite a person to a meeting is by voice (call or speech) in order to give him/her the needed information about the meeting. It is important to send a written follow-up notice of the meeting in which are highlighted: date, time, place and agenda

Agenda

A very good strategy for organize a good meeting is to fix the meeting goals before and plan the discussion that will happen during the meeting.
The agenda should be developed involving all the key participants of the meeting.
A guideline (agenda) of the main points should be drawn up. In this way the time consumption will be optimized.
- The goals of the meeting should be clear to all the participants before the meeting take place, in this way all the participants will have the time to get ready to face up and discuss the topics.
On the other side, all the participants should show up at the meeting prepared, with a list of the questions and the interventions they want to bring to the common environment.
The agenda should include the outcomes that are expected for each point.
The agenda has to be posted and easily accessible for all the time during the meeting.

Moderation

Every meeting should be moderated by a speaker (or moderator) that will lead the meeting through the planned points
The moderator should interpret all the qualified participants for any point
Moderator is responsible for the conduct of the meeting. He has to ensure all the points are faced and satisfactorily treated.

Protocol

It is useful to note down in a Protocol the points and the topics faced during the meeting by the participants, their interventions and outcomes for every point .
The report should be distributed to the meeting participants and stored for future consulting.
It is crucially important to monitor the members activity and the company/enterprise trend according to time-scheduled goals which are shared between all the departments.
- Meetings are useless if project members will not do what they planned during the meeting.

Evaluating the meeting

Always end meetings on time and attempt to end on a positive note.
At the end of a meeting, review actions and assignments, and set the time for the next meeting and ask each person if they can make it or not (to get their commitment)

Follow-up

It is useful to send to all the meeting participants a recap or follow-up with all the main points discussed via email or with any other communication mean
This activity will reinforce the importance of the points discussed and the commitment and responsibility of the meeting participants

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