Meetings in the workplace are done to discuss certain issues and few are regarding new amendments. Most of the experts who join the meetings claim that some meetings are innovative whereas some of the meetings are waste of time.
Some meetings at work are considered as a waste of time because of the improper planning about the discussions. If a meeting goes on well then it will subject to a valuable result.
In this article, we discussed the importance of meetings at work, agenda, meeting types and objectives.
Objectives of Meetings at Work:
Meetings at work help in the growth of the organization and it enables right decision making. It helps in discussing the challenges that tend to threaten profitability. Here are few objectives of effective meetings at work:
1. It develops a meeting plan.
2. Indicates the practices that are followed in the team.
3. Team meetings help in identifying the roles that are more effective than the normal.
4. Employees should learn and practice the techniques that are discussed in the meeting.
5. Meetings evaluate the quality of an organization.
6. Usage of agenda and honest discussion are main objectives.
Effective meetings at the workplace:
Conducting an effective meeting is a great challenge. Effective meetings are organized in order to produce a productive outcome. An instance of sharing expertise evolves a natural way of the benefits of the organization.
Here the decisions and the meetings can be picked superior to the individuals. These business meetings are effective because it takes the advantage from multiple innovative ideas. It involves identifying the things that go wrong and the ways to brainstorm those mistakes.
Rules to be followed in meeting:
An employee must try to pay full attention to the discussion that helps in resolving related conflicts. Here are few rules that are to be followed during the meeting.
- Meetings should start and end on time.
- Attendees should be present both physically and mentally.
- It should be brief and precise.
- Encouraging the participation of others.
- The topic should not be diverted.
Why conduct a meeting?
Meetings are conducted to solve a problem and to make important decisions. It aims at developing a proper plan. When the people are gathered or while the information is conveyed the chief in the meeting will get various responses from the employees.
Again, to obtain consensus employees will be gathered to establish a rapport relationship. It also aims at working as a team and to clarify the responsibilities within the team.
When are Meetings Useless?
Some meetings are unproductive due to following reasons:
a. A mission of the meeting is unclear.
b. When there will be no agenda.
c. The leader tries to dump too much upon the employees.
d. Dominating the coworkers at the meeting.
e. An employee diverts the topic.
f. No clear conclusions.
Agenda of an Effective Meeting:
Each and every meeting holds an agenda that leads a meeting to be effective. Assigning the roles that are mentioned within the given timing makes more sense. A note keeper will prepare the agenda and verifies it with his/her manager. This enables in dealing with assigned roles, deadline, brainstorming session etc. An effective agenda for the meeting is as follows:
- Purpose of meeting
- Name of the meeting
- Time and location has to be mentioned
- Name of the employees attending
- Name of the person who held the meeting
- Brainstorming session and selecting the best suggestion
- Meeting notes has to be taken
Deciding who should attend the meeting:
Scheduling the meeting when the key people can be present arrives at most of the time. If they are not present then the organizer must ask the other employees to participate via speakerphone or in a video conference.
Types of Meetings:
Meetings at work can be divided into three broad categories. They are as follows:
1. Statutory meeting.
2. Annual general meeting.
3. Advanced general meeting.
1. Statutory meeting:
The statutory meeting can be defined as the first meeting among the employees of the company after which commences the business. It will be held once in a year. This office meeting helps the employee to gain a proper understanding of the organization.
It has to be held within six months or three months of the joining date of the employee. It includes a list of directors, managers and other members of the organization.
2. Annual general meeting:
Annual general meeting is organized to understand the affairs of the company. Here the people who are invited for the meeting will ask questions about the affairs of the organization. They protect the interest of the company. It must be organized every year. Annual meetings should be done periodically that means the gap between meetings should not be more than fifteen months.
3. Advanced general meeting:
Advanced General meetings are handled for urgent special meetings and may not be postponed. It can be called by directors and on the requisition of employees. It will be deposited by the requisitions. This has to be held with the deposition and within three months.
Meetings and resolutions:
Decisions are made by the majority of the people in the organization that will end up in taking resolutions. There are different types of resolutions in the meetings. They are:
- Ordinary resolution
- Special resolution
- Resolution that requires special notice
When is an ordinary resolution required?
An ordinary resolution is required when there are some issues with the shares and discounts. It also depends on the alternation of the capital. It enables the passing of accounts and balance sheet.
Winding up with the voluntary events and the adoption of all the other reports helps in sharing the capital. Appointing the whole time director is the mandatory requirement in ordinary resolution.
When is special resolution required?
When there is an alteration of the articles and variation of the rights of shareholders. Reduction of the capital in the share leads to the implementation of the special resolution. This allows the office to hold onto the profit results.
Importance of Meetings:
Meetings concentrate on the gathering of the employees to suggest new innovative ideas. They mainly focus on some of the following concepts. They are:
- Removal of misunderstandings.
- Comparing the information.
- Alternative methods and techniques for various problems.
- Clarification and elaboration of new ideas and concepts.
- Review about the performance.
- Collecting a detailed review about the information gathered in preference to the context of business.
- Meetings facilitate the intensive interactions with various groups as well as with individuals.
- It enables face to face contact with the employees which help in clarifying their doubts regarding the assigned task.
- It also provides the opportunity to deal with sharing information, suggesting different ideas, taking discussions and helps in getting instant feedback from the employee.
- During the meeting, there will be an exchange of information.
- Deliberation on certain issues.
- Alternative viewpoints will be taken into account.
- Reviews of performance.
- These meetings at workplace will cause intensive interaction with the employees.
Guidelines of Meeting:
It is not mandatory that each and every meeting has to be 60 minutes. This is because the digital calendars show it as 30 minutes increment. Conversations must be handled in such a way that it leads to taking a proper decision.
One must be prepared for all the questions that will be raised from employees. Ruining the topics more than 5 minutes is more important and the conclusion of the meetings should be heard from different options. The person who held the meeting should be assertive and suspect on the words uttered by the employee.
Deciding on how to decide:
Most of the meetings require multiple agreements that follow participation with different decisions. They are as follows:
- A voting system that indicates the majority of preference.
- Consensus leads to the most agreed decisions
- Consulting and listening acts as subsets of the meetings
- Commanding helps in deciding that does not involve others.
Outcome of the Meeting:
Effective meetings capture the actions to be preceded and processed by the employees of that particular company. Here the items have to be processed after the other employees leave the hall and the real work has to be established.
As soon as the meeting gets over, employees have to keep clear notes about the topic discussed in the meeting. One must have a positive influence on every single meeting that will be attended.
So, one must not check-out on different tasks without knowing the consequences of each and every work taken by one.
Participation in the meeting:
The manager should be capable of resolving the issues that help in the growth of the company. Participation matters a lot in each meeting. One should be capable of listening, supporting and contributing to the team. How will the agenda be created and the action maintained to capture the points during the meeting. The employee should focus on telling ‘and’ rather than saying ‘but’.
The purpose of Meetings at Workplace:
High-level changes take place in the workplaces. The organization which has to survive and strive for the best deals with these high-level changes. The announcement of meetings happens often so as to ensure that the projects have to be initiated. This attitude helps to develop the people who have contingency planning along with focusing the challenges.
Most of the employee will feel whether this meeting will be effective or not. Before attending each and every meeting people has to concentrate more on the collecting or gathering points about why is the meeting is held.
1. Aims in achieving the objectives of the gathering
2. To keep track of the work done
3. Managing the time as well that includes making healthy decisions.
4. Adhere to the agenda.
5. Have consistent follow up towards the objectives.
Guidelines for taking notes in a meeting:
Taking proper notes will deal with the effectiveness of meeting and the important points to be remembered. Using this organized notes, one can try to overcome the obstacles in the work.
The notes that are taken can be shared or private. If it is shared then the employee must follow the outline and proper style formats. Notes can also use a relevant notation that improves the quality of notes. The main purpose of taking notes during the meeting is to deal with the issues that arise in future.
Putting the ideas into practice:
Once the meeting is finished then it becomes as individual’s responsibility to practice those ideas. One must focus on following the right practices as discussed in the meeting.
Meetings are formal so they have to be held at least once in every week or every three months. To run more effective meetings the achievements done by each individual matters which can be handled by putting the ideas discussed in meetings into practice.
Office meetings strategies:
Arranging a meeting at the office may be time-consuming and helps in utilizing the resources significantly. Being prepared and organizing everyone for the meeting will make the meeting more efficient. The manager should be careful in organizing the attendees.
Offering the agenda via email helps the participants to be aware of the meeting and also helps in analyzing the segment of the meeting. Usage of software tools will improve the quality of the meeting.
Common Rules For a Meeting:
1. Meetings should be organized only when it is required.
2. It should follow a proper time schedule
3. It can be organized when there is no conference call facility internally.
4. It must possess a clear agenda and a sub-agenda.
5. They must possess clear objectives.
6. The time limit should be mentioned for each agenda.
7. Employees should make use of the meeting.
8. Simple and easily understandable conclusions should arrive
Thus, the meetings are arranged to discuss the issues faced by the employee. It promotes the growth of the organization. It also helps in providing updates to keep track of the job completed. If every task has to be completed within the deadline, then guidelines must be given in the meetings.
