As a software developer working in teams, within and across disciplines, we usually spend a fair bit of time in meetings.
For all the complaining we often hear, good meetings can be tremendously productive, where every attendee is better off for having attended them at their conclusion.
And so, today, a few checklists to make sure you're setting yourself up for a good meeting.
Before the meeting
- Have an agenda visible to everyone. Ideally in the body of the calendar invitation.
- Start with a list of subjects to cover. These can be questions, topics to present, or whatever helps provide some structure and clarify the meeting contents.
- Add time blocks to your agenda. This gives you and others a sense of how much time you plan on spending on each subject.
- Coordinate with presenters. If you're assigning specific owners to subjects, call it out in the agenda, and coordinate to make sure they are prepared.
- Provide background information and any sort of links to references that attendees would need.
- Designate a facilitator. This can be someone who takes discussion notes, captures action items, interrupts people who speak longer than necessary or drift off, or does time checks. The organizer can take some of these roles, but it's often best if they can be shared by a couple of people.
- Consider having another channel to post notes, have people ask questions and record answers, and post after-the-meeting followups. This could be a chat thread or a document that people collaborate on.
- Consider reusing an existing meeting. If there an upcoming one-off or recurring where you can resolve your work, consider reusing that one to save time.
- Don't do a last-minute cancellation. If you plan on cancelling if there is no quorum or there is prep work missing, then do it 24/48 hours before, so people can organize their time effectively.
During the meeting
- Show up on time.
- Be engaging. Much like public speaking, when people give their time to you, you have a responsibility to use it wisely. Direct focus and energy to keep things interesting and encourage participation.
- Intentionally start wrapping up as the end approaches. This gives everyone time to review action items, set owners, and set followup timelines. This will take some minutes, and you don't want to rush this while everyone needs to take off.
- Drive towards results. There is a purpose to the meeting - don't let it wander off. If needed, take down notes on other topics to be reviewed in the future.
- Be inclusive. Anyone who was invited to participate should have the opportunity to participate. Sometimes they need some encourgement or support - provide it.
- Take a break if needed. If your meeting is longer than an hour or an hour and a half, you'll want to allow a break for people.
- End on time.
After the meeting
- Share notes. What topics were covered, important comments, questions asked, and decisions made.
- Share action items. These should be SMART as usual - specific, measureable, actionable, realistic, time-bound.
- Thank people for their time.
Note that this checklist doesn't address the physical aspects - allocating a room, preparing materials, getting supplies, sorting out seating arrangement if needed, getting refreshments, etc.
Happy meetings!
Tags:
checklist management
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