What three things would you recommend to your co-worker to help run better meetings?

[#1]

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What three things would you recommend to your co-worker to help run better meetings?

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Note: this article is a prompt within an Atlassian University course, How to Run Effective Meetings. In this activity, learners have the opportunity to provide their advice and suggestions on Community. Even if you haven’t taken the course, you’re still welcome to respond to this post and give your advice.

[Cheri Hansen]

1.  Know your objective - set an agenda

2. Stick to discussions within the scope of the objective - parking lot other items

3. Follow-up

[Summer Hogan]

1. Set an agenda for every meeting

2. Stick to the agenda and bring the meeting back to focus when it gets off track

3. Send out meeting minutes

[Andy Gladstone]

1. Meetings should always start and end on time, preferably the same time/day each week.
2. Share an agenda with attendees before the meeting - it will increase the value of the discussion and participation during the meeting.
3. If there are action items that come out of the meeting, publish and share them immediately at the conclusion of the meeting. This provides:
   
   • The assigned team member maximum time to address/complete the action item
   • The momentum of the meeting to be maximized.

[Ajay _view26_]

1.  Encourage everyone to come prepared for the meeting with status on the action items from previous meetings.

2. Start the meeting and end the meeting on time. Stick to the agenda

3. Send out an MoM to all the stakeholders at the end of the meeting

[John Funk]

1. Don't do status meetings if you can derive the status through existing dashboards, Jira boards, etc. 

2. Capture "parking lot" items for each meeting. This is for when an individual topic is getting too much attention and can't be solved in the meeting. Move it to the parking lot for another more focused group to engage more fully later. 

3. Share the agenda beforehand so people come to the meeting prepared. And then stick to the agenda as many have already said. 

[Paloma Fondon Araujo]

1. Start and end meetings within the established timetable. If you arrive late, do not interrupt the course of the meeting.

2. Send out the purpose of the meeting in advance so that attendees come prepared and participate appropriately.

3. Send the minutes of the meeting to all attendees and follow up on items agreed at the meeting, if there are any.

[Jess Sherman]

1. Send out the agenda ahead of time so people can adequately prepare

2. Send meeting minutes after the meeting has ended

3. Have a visual to help track progress and show where the blockers are

[Bill Sheboy]

1) Gather

2) Have a purpose (i.e. meeting type and outcome); use an agenda; release people not needed; ask for walk-ons; park other topics, and clear the parking lot later; create an action plan: what, owner, by when; manage your time-box; process-check, as needed

3) Close

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

I would always say: 

1. Have a clear agenda 
2. focus on getting the things you need complete 
3. give a quick summary of what's been discussed and what their task is now

[matthias.hellen]

1. create and share an agenda 
2. avoid status meetings and use status pages instead
3. create meeting notes 

[Robert Wen_Cprime_]

1. Create an agenda.  Make sure people know what the meeting is about and what the expectations are.

2. A time box that you stick to.  Nothing drains energy like a 3-hour meeting that was "supposed to be quick".

3. Action items that people commit to completing.  Make sure the assignees are accountable to them.

[Mike Hunsberger]

For a daily virtual team meeting, I like to: 

1. Keep the meeting small. Only the essential team members. 
2. Start off with any “hot” topics. Timebox this to no more than 10 minutes, if possible. Note any new Jira tasks that need to be created from this discussion. 
3. Jump into Jira as a team with someone screen sharing the board. Ideally everyone has updated their in-progress tickets so we’re just discussing any major blockers. Celebrate together when we move tasks to Done. 

[Benjamin]

1. Set and send the agenda
2. Figure out the achieve outcome of the meeting
3. Make sure to invite all the appropriate stakeholders to the meeting. 

[Catherine Schwartz]

1. Send out the agenda ahead of time so people can adequately prepare.
2. Have a purpose, (What is this meeting about?) and expected outcome. Excuse people not needed.
3. Thank everyone for their participation and send out a quick summary of what's been discussed, and action items or tasks assigned.

[Steven Mustari]

A lot of great content in this thread. Great advice everywhere.

1. Don't be afraid to cancel if it's not needed.
2. Don't be afraid to end a meeting early, or change a cadence entirely if it's needed.
3. Use optional invitees, and optional should mean optional.

[Chikezie Keke]

1. Always know and stick to your agenda.

2. Invite the right people to the meeting

3. Encourage everyone to participate and have an input. 

[Praveen Sharma]

1. Publish the Agenda before the meeting
2. Don't be afraid to cancel the meeting or end it early, if the agenda/goal is achieved
3. Think and rethink who is required and who is optional. Required participants should have opening on their calendar.

[Ariadna Jasso]

1. Clear objective 

2. Right people

3. Use facilitating tools

[Caron Saul]

1. Clear objective / purpose

2. Don't run meetings to get status updates available elsewhere

3. Don't run a meeting for the many, when specific interaction is required with the few.

[Nathan Villhard]

1. Do the pre-work (Create the agenda based on the established goal and put it out for everyone to review).

2. Assign a facilitator and scribe role to members of each meeting. Allow flexibility if one of the roles needs to more heavily participate in a topic during the meeting. 

3. Establish and review ground rules for accountability 

[Jeffrie Penrod]

1. Invest 30 minutes in the free, on-demand course How to Run Effective Meetings.
2. For each participant you're thinking of inviting to your meeting, ask yourself "What will they get of this meeting by attending?" or "What makes this meeting worth their time?".
3. Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself "Are there other asynchronous approaches to achieve the goal of the meeting?"  Such as Confluence pages, Loom videos, Mural boards, email, etc. 

[Lauren Allen]

1. Invite people as optional and let them decide if it will be helpful to attend
2. Give them enough/the right information before the meeting so they are informed
3. Assign the scribe role to someone who is often the most talkative person. That way they are involved and focussed but not taking over the discussion

[Jessica Chai]

1. Set a goal for the meeting.
2. Build and timebox your agenda items - clear purposeful agenda items with allocated time slots will help keep the meeting on track.
3. Don't be afraid to cut conversations short and park them for later to revisit so that you can get through the agenda you set out to achieve,

[Robert Edgar]

1. Be clear on the intent of the meeting 

2. Determine whether a meeting is the right way to achieve that intent

3. Make sure attendees are clear on the intent through a clear and considered agenda

[Claudio Codispoti]

1. Define the purpose of the meeting, together with the Agenda, before sending an invite and include all the info in the description of the meeting.
   
   
2. Timeplan the meeting as much as possible with reserved minutes for contingency.
   
   
3. Keep it under 60 minutes, better under 45 when possible. Ideally, I'd set only 15 or 30 minutes meetings, attention is a scarce resource.