Some meetings do really well with no structure, but I find the most successful meetings have the following qualities:
- A clear meeting organizer / person in charge
- An agenda
- Agenda should be read by attendees in advance via the meting invite
- Stick to the agenda
- Organizer tables / parking-lots off-topic items
- Call in / video sharing / screen sharing available
- Someone with taking notes
- Collaboratively, if necessary
- Posts the notes to project resources
- Creates action items from the notes
- Follows up with an email, if necessary
- A clear and easy way out
- Either before or during a meeting, any team member should be empowered to say something like “I don’t think I’m going to be useful here– do you mind if I duck out?”
or “I’m not at all vested in the process here, just the result, so I’d prefer to duck out and just filled in afterwards.”
- Either before or during a meeting, any team member should be empowered to say something like “I don’t think I’m going to be useful here– do you mind if I duck out?”