Do you look forward to meetings? (Yes, we know you just spit up your coffee when you read that.) Most people find meetings to be overly long, boring, repetitive and lacking concrete outcomes. Given how much of our work lives we spend in meetings, this issue of poorly designed and executed meetings should be a crisis!

Don’t worry. We got you.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers recently posted 3 Strategies to Change your Workplace Culture by Changing Your Meetings. They say that using these three meeting strategies will help create a culture of collaboration, shared leadership and trust:

1. Identify purpose and time frame for the meeting. Know why you’re having it and how long people need to commit.
2. Co-create the agenda on the spot. (Humanergy says co-create the agenda in advance so everyone can review inputs and prepare in advance.)
3. Run the meeting with defined roles, like meeting host, agenda item facilitator and note taker.
4. Humanergy’s bonus meetings strategy: Always, always have defined outputs (what will be achieved) for every meeting – and for every agenda item. Here’s a sample agenda item from one of our recent meetings:
   1. Input = Review article XYZ
   2. Agenda item = Discuss article application to our training
   3. Time estimated for item = 20 minutes
   4. Output = Align on implications and future actions, with accountability and time frame for completion

Implement these four strategies, and you’ll have fewer, better meetings.

Have a meeting method that really works? Comment below or message us.

Want to learn more about making meetings a favorite part of your day? Sign up for High Impact Leadership Training – the whole 12-session series, or just the bits you need most.

Photo by Antenna on Unsplash