Effective Meetings in 7 simple steps

Apologies for absence

Some people don’t turn up for meetings and they don’t tell anyone beforehand. In Britain, in particular, this is not well viewed, and in France they call it absence sauvage: ‘savage absence’. If you can’t make a meeting, you should always email or phone in good time. If it’s a short notice cancellation or delay, make sure you phone.

If by any chance you miss a meeting and don’t inform the meeting leader, then you should apologise by phone or email as soon as possible afterwards.

On the agenda, absence is noted like this:

Apologies

Barry Tomalin

Or:

Apologies receivedBarry Tomalin

Or:

Apologies received from Barry Tomalin

If you’ve sent your apologies in advance, then you should be on the list to receive the minutes of the meeting. If for any reason you don’t receive them, then you should ask for them.

Minutes of last meeting

For a regular meeting, when you send out the invitation to the next meeting, you should usually attach the minutes of the previous meeting. That way everyone can check what has and hasn’t been done since the last meeting.

Agenda items

Each item on the agenda has a title, for example:

1.Project update (Claire) – (7 minutes), Paper 2.1

Check company practice in the presentation of items.

- Is an ‘item owner’ listed? In this case, Claire introduces the update, followed by discussion.

- Is there a suggested time? This proposes a theoretical duration for the presentation and discussion. It helps the meeting leader keep track of time, so he/she can shorten the discussion or cut another item lower down the list. Also, it helps the item owner, Claire, know how long she is expected to take.

- Are there supporting papers? If so, it may be useful to list these so that participants know which paper refers to which item.

The number of items on the agenda depends on the time available and the number of issues to be discussed. But an agenda of seven items in a 60-minute meeting would be ample.

Supporting papers may be of different types. They might include financial statements, product specifications and descriptions, and position papers on issues of policy or strategy. They can be added to the agenda and circulated with it as hard or soft copy. Be sure to have hard copies on hand for participants who haven’t printed out the soft copy!