Focusing at your desk can be difficult sometimes. And even when it is time to leave your cube and head to a group meeting, maintaining the vision of the goals of the meeting can be even more difficult. With a large group of people that have their own individual ideas, thoughts and opinions it can be hard to gather these all together to produce positive results in the allotted meeting time. Whether these meetings are weekly or everyday, it can be easy to get in a habit of getting off-track and accomplishing less than desired.
5 Rules To Increase Office Meeting Productivity:
- Set out Main Goals: In order to get everyone on the same page, make sure that the objectives of the meeting are clearly stated at the start of the allotted time. This way everyone is aware of what needs to be accomplished and there is no confusion. Writing it out in a few words on a white board can keep the goal in people’s minds throughout the time.
- Fung Shui the Space: While this may not be possible to do every week nor every month, creating a physical change in the meeting room allows for more creative thoughts to develop. Whether that be rearranging some furniture or getting rid of chairs all together for a day and forcing employees to work in small groups standing. If everyone has been sitting at a desk for some time then a change to get the blood flowing could be good!
- Positivity Wins: The point of any office meeting is to accomplish something concrete. This objective may change on a daily basis but the means of getting there do not. Positive and realistic contributions to the conversation make for productive meetings while negative attitudes are normally not helpful. Only discuss a problem if that problem is pertinent to the solution.
- Assign Specific Tasks: Make sure that all meeting members are given detail-oriented assignments at the end of each meeting. These tasks should include clear goals as well as due dates and times.
- Maintain a Balance: With individual thoughts and ideas being brought to the table, there is bound to be one person that tries to dominate the conversation and push his or her own opinions. When this occurs it is important to try and shift the discussion away from him or her and if necessary request them to allow another to offer an idea.
Overall, meetings in the office are important and can determine what and what doesn’t get accomplished in the work week to come. Make sure that you and your fellow employees are using these designated times to the utmost advantage to have productive meetings. To read more office ideas and inspiration, follow us on our LinkedIn and Facebook accounts !