Alisa Cohn - 3 Ways to Make Your Meetings More Productive

Here are 3 tips to help you have more productive meetings. Number 1, think about what the goal of this meeting is. When you know what the goal of the meeting is and you know specifically what will be different at the end of this meeting than was true at the beginning of this meeting, you'll be much more apt to achieve your goal and make the meeting a productive use of time. Number 2, set your agenda to achieve those goals. If what you're trying to do is get buy-in from everybody, don't have one person present and at the very end say, "Okay, or do we all agree?" Has to be a discussion. If you wanna just inform folks of things, then maybe a presentation does make sense. But choose a specific tool that's gonna help you achieve the goal of your meeting. Number 3, have agreements in how you come to meetings together. It might be no cell phones and no devices. It might be that everyone has to speak up in the meeting. One way or the other, when everyone knows what to expect from the meeting and what their role is, you will have a more productive meeting.