Tips to Facilitate a Successful Meeting

At Meeting Sites Pro, Inc. we plan meetings, we participate in meetings, we host meetings to discuss meetings. Meetings are our lifeblood and we have noticed that one of the pillars of a successful meetings is effective facilitation. We follow industry opinions on this matter as well and wanted to share a recent article from Forbes that agrees with our observations. Forbes’ recommends 7 major steps to running a productive and efficient meeting as seen below.

1. Make your objectives clear
2. Consider who is invited 
3. Stick to your schedule
4. Take no hostages
5. Start on time, end on time
6. Ban technology
7.  Follow up

Our biggest recommendations from this list are making your objectives clear, sticking to the outlined schedule, and following up. A clear objective communicated early with a specific schedule helps all in attendance come to the meeting prepared with materials, topics of conversation, and the right mindset. We have found that providing an agenda early and then sticking to that agenda is one of the best ways to keep your group focused whether you are facilitating a small conference call or a large summit. After the meeting, it is always beneficial to follow up as soon as possible with items like meeting summaries and action items.

Meetings big and small can benefit from efficient and effective facilitation. To hear more of our thoughts on meeting facilitation, please feel free to contact us and if you are interested in the full article, “The Seven Steps to Running the Most Effective Meeting Possible”, please visit Forbes.com.