Five Steps to a Great Meeting

At Vmeals we're all about great food...and also great meetings!

Nearly every group meal ordered on www.vmeals.com ends up in some meeting where critically important business strategies -- and a few Super Bowl ads -- are being hotly discussed.

Some people suggest that business meetings are colossal time-wasters. On the contrary! Meetings are the glue that keep business people connected and engaged with each other. (Sorry, it's not Facebook.) Not to mention they're a perfect excuse to enjoy a tasty meal with your friends and associates...

As self-proclaimed experts on the subject (and with tongue somewhat in cheek), we put our heads together and came up with the five most important steps to holding a really great meeting, besides having lots of good food there, of course:

1.) "The purpose of this meeting is..."
After the obligatory stories about who saw what movie over the weekend, every meeting should start with these simple words. If the meeting has no stated purpose, then it's just lunch with annoying talking. Be clear and firm about why you're holding the meeting and what you plan to accomplish in the time allocated. Then do it. By the way, if you see a participant lean back in his/her chair and roll their eyes when you state the purpose, watch them...they'll be your trouble-maker.

2.) Set Ground Rules
Every effective meeting has them. Be specific in advance about the start time, the hard stop time, the required attendees, who has speaking roles and who doesn't, and times allotted to each agenda item. Be clear about if and when questions will be taken; they can send any meeting off into the weeds. Another tip: if your meeting has more than a handful of participants, set a requirement that a participant raise his/her hand and be acknowledged by the meeting chair before speaking. Your trouble-maker (see above) will try to ignore this rule, so be firm. This cuts down on folks "throwing a grenade on the table," and it also helps you say, "I'll take one more comment/question, then we'll move on to the next item."

3.) Have a Clear Agenda
Seems obvious, but we've been to plenty of meetings that didn't have an agenda. Or, even worse, the agenda was typed up five minutes before the meeting. You know the one: Introduction; Reports; Questions; New Business; Adjourn. "New Business," by the way, means an issue that someone brings up that will be deferred until, and forgotten long before, the next meeting. Instead, start with your agenda and notes from the previous meeting, then craft an agenda with items like:

• Meeting Objective (see number 1. above)
• Progress Reports (specific accomplishments since the last meeting)
• Open Issues (things not accomplished yet)
• Assignments (who owns an issue and is responsible for resolving it)
• Action Steps (specific accomplishments required before the next meeting)

That's it. Anything else on the agenda is probably a waste of everyone's time and, come on, the food's getting cold!

4.) Limit Open-Ended Discussions
An ineffective meeting usually begins with the words, "I wanted to get us all together so we can have an open and productive conversation about..." Think school board meeting. Or property owners association meeting. Gall bladder surgery with a dull knife also comes to mind. Open discussions, participant input and consensus-building can be important meeting functions, but these exercises must be clearly defined in advance (scope, time allotted) and everyone in the room must understand that they are leading to an inevitable action (agreement, vote, next item), or they serve little purpose.

5.) Evaluate and Set Next Steps
Ever gotten to the end of a meeting, and everyone just looked around uncomfortably at each other, gathered up their things, then wandered off to their offices? Not a good sign. That meeting will be forgotten in about the time it takes to tweet, "lame meeting over...where r beers after work?" The last minute of a meeting is the most critical, and often the most difficult. This is when you must summarize the assignments and action steps (remember your agenda above?). Be clear and direct about what is expected of each participant. Finally, it doesn't hurt as the "last word" to thank everyone for coming and, if you think folks are doing a good job, be sure to say so.

Here's to more effective meetings...and to more delicious meeting meals from your friends at Vmeals!