3 Tips to Nail Your Next Meeting

What exactly a meeting can accomplish differs greatly depending upon how prepared and engaged you and your team are. Looking to nail your next meeting? No matter your goals, or your position on the team, these three tips can help you to squeeze every ounce of success you can from your next meeting.

Be Prepared to Take Notes

In many workspaces, meetings can take up a substantial amount of time, and during this time a wide range of points can be brought up and discussed. This can make it very hard to retain all of the important details—especially if only a handful of them pertain to you or your team specifically. Be ready to take notes, and be ready to take them properly. Inefficient notes, or notes that you can’t read, won’t be helpful when you refer back to them.

If you’re unclear on how to take efficient and clear notes, here are some quick pointers:

• Always note dates—deadlines, new plans, appointments. Be sure to label the date as well!

• Use bullet points. An endless scrawl across the page will do nothing to grab your eye, so if you find a point relevant enough to note it, bullet -or number- it to keep things organized and easily-skimmable.

• Note important points like company goals, team changes, success benchmarks, and relevant metrics.

Bring an Idea or Plan

Meetings are supposed to do two big things: administer information, and find ways to improve the team and or workplace. Don’t focus on trying to reinvent your office before every meeting, but it is a great idea to come with meaningful and practical suggestions. If you are scratching your head over things to bring up, here are a few easy ones that frequently benefit most business types:

• Suggestions that focus on improving workflow

• Suggestions that aim to save time or to reduce resource waste

• Suggestions on how to streamline processes

• Suggestions that focus on employee morale or health

Give Clear, Concise Feedback

One of the greatest advantages of a constructive meeting is the opportunity to make change where it is needed, or to reinforce changes or processes that are working. Whether you want to address a problem, or you want to make sure that good things stick around, be sure to let the team know.

In the interest of both brevity and precision, it’s a great idea to build out a list of some sort well beforehand. This can be as simple as typing up some bullet points or making some cards, or as comprehensive as building charts to represent any growth, loss, or positive outcomes you want to bring up. Remember that your insights are exceptionally valuable, and your point of view is unique—don’t rob yourself of the chance to make positive changes when possible. Your higher-ups, teammates, and your future self will thank you.

Whether you are a team leader looking to avoid the common pitfalls of bad meeting practices, or you’re a part of the team looking to make positive change, keep these tips in mind for your next big meeting. Happy, healthy workplaces are a thing that everyone deserves, and utilizing the above tips can very well put you on the way to a more productive workplace.