Run successful meetings Step 15 - Follow up on the actions and next steps

Welcome to the 15 steps to run successful meetings. We are at the end of this process. This is step number 15. And the final step is follow up on the questions, actions, and decisions from your meeting. Even though a meeting may be over, you've closed down the Zoom meeting, everybody has left the room if you're all together, the meeting may be over, but the work isn't. There is almost always something else to be done, even after you've sent out the minutes and the output. Now, if you don't follow up on the questions, actions, and decisions, what happens? Well, really, the overall meeting is likely to be less valuable. As I talked about in step 14, meeting minutes, questions, actions, decisions, if they're not sent out, they're much less likely to be done. And equally, if you don't send— if you don't follow up on those things, they're much less likely to be done. See? Exactly the same as that previous step, similar to not sending minutes, questions won't be answered if you don't follow up and check whether someone is asking and answering the question. You need to make sure actions are being done. If somebody said they would do something at, at or by a certain time, if we don't follow up on it, there's a lower chance that that will happen. Yes, we should trust people, but at the same time, we're all busy and actions can fall off our to-do lists or be taken over by something more important. Following up to make sure that all these actions are completed is important. And if you produced an output that people need to use or should be using, follow up and make sure that they are using it. When you've produced something new from a meeting, sometimes people need a reminder that that is, is there to be useful and to help them in whatever it is that they're trying to do. So send out your minutes and then follow up on those next steps. How do you do it? What are the specific steps? Well, that's up to you, and it's absolutely situation-specific. There are no hard and fast rules for what to do. It's going to depend on who is involved, where you work, your working style, the culture, the specific actions, the specific decisions, methods of communication. All sorts of things will determine how you follow up on the questions, actions, decisions, and next steps from your meetings. How you do it is up to you. The important thing is that you do it. And this is why the 15th and final step to having successful meetings is making sure that you follow up on the questions, the actions, and decisions.