Rules in Holding Meetings Effectively

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Team huddles, weekly conferences, business rendezvous, and project consultations— holding a meeting takes on so many diverse monikers, but one thing is for sure whether you are working in a medical corporation or a digital marketing agency, holding meetings is pivotal to having a functional and efficient workforce. Holding meetings ensure that every single individual involved in a particular project is updated with whatever developments and breakthroughs the team has been making.

Additionally, it is also an effective way to keep tabs on your co-workers with regards to your designated project and be aware of every involved person’s contribution.  However, all these will be for naught when meetings are held ineffectively and apart from that, you will be wasting valuable company time.

More often than not, companies no longer hold meetings as frequently as they did before because they view this as something that would eat time that could be designated for something that would ensure productive results. In essence, some companies would view meetings as an avenue for small talk without establishing any real breakthroughs and advances by its resolution. The sentiments are admittedly true when certain objectives are not ascertained prior to the conference, but when you complement thorough meeting objectives with certain conference rules, your meetings will not only be effective, but it makes for more productivity.

If you are wondering what some of these rules are, take a look below and see if there are some rules you would like to establish during your meetings.

RULE NUMBER 1: RUN YOUR MEETINGS AS YOU WOULD HAVE OTHERS RUN THE MEETINGS THAT YOU HAVE TO ATTEND 

In essence, this rules talks about consideration. This is the Golden Rule of Meeting Management and is probably the most fundamental meeting rule above all. Be considerate of your meeting attendees as they have designated a fraction of their times just to convene with you. To illustrate, say you are running the meeting, imagine what it would be like for your meeting attendees had the roles been reversed and you were the one attending this particular meeting instead of conducting it. If there is something that you do not like (perhaps the way you dilly-dally on small topics) then maybe you should revamp your technique.

RULE NUMBER 2: CREATE A REALISTIC AGENDA 

No meeting should ever be held without an agenda or else, you and your co-workers would not establish anything by the end of your convention. One thing to consider is that if it is not important enough to create a written agenda, then perhaps it is not important enough to attend. Remember, you are interrupting people from doing valuable work for the company, so be ascertain that your agenda is something incredibly significant or important.
Contemplate about the various topics to be covered and have a timeframe of how the meeting should flow and as much as possible, stick to the agenda and to the time frame you have established.

RULE NUMBER 3: TAKE WRITTEN MINUTES

Regardless of the number of people attending—whether there would only be as few as two people attending the meeting or as many as a dozen, a person must be designated to take the meeting’s written minutes. This would provide the meeting attendees with context. Additionally, it would apprise those who were not able to attend of the meeting’s developments. Do not record every single thing said in the meeting, instead, list the crucial decisions and action items. This would ensure that should anyone have a disagreement later, or would refute some of the items agreed on the meeting, misunderstanding may be cleared through a thorough review of the minutes.

RULE NUMBER 4: STAY ON TOPIC 

Remember, you are holding a business meeting, you are not interrupting people for a simple office chit-chat. Although going off tangent is inevitable during meetings, everyone has the equal responsibility to stay on track. When something like this occurs in your meeting, someone should gently direct the meeting back to the agenda items.


These four simple rules can drastically change how your meetings will progress, and it would make your meetings more productive. Remember, improving the quality of your meetings takes work, but if you think a meeting overhaul should be made then do it. Meetings consume a lot of resources and interrupt the flow of work after all. The more efficient your meetings are, the better you return on investment will be.