Tip no. 1: Share the agenda in advance
According to Gallup, first of all you should inform participants of the agenda sufficiently in advance so they can prepare. Without their having this opportunity, the meeting will be less productive and the organiser, who knows what will be discussed, has an unfair advantage over the other attendees.
Tip no. 2: Invite only relevant people
Too many meetings are attended by people who do not need to be there at all. Either the topics covered do not concern them in any way, or only peripherally. The solution is to invite those for whom only a minority of topics are relevant just for the first 15 minutes or so of the meeting.
Tip no. 3: Do not exceed the time limit
The basic rule is you should stick to the defined schedule and not exceed the allocated time, which is one way in particular how to make attendees dislike such meetings. Moreover, once you start exceeding the given time, people stop paying attention and the meeting becomes highly ineffective.
Tip no. 4: Draw clear conclusions
Discussing only general topics at meetings without reaching any specific conclusions might be frustrating for the attendees. For meetings to be genuinely effective, they must lead to concrete conclusions and plans for the future.
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