They Are Happy To Come To My Meetings!
Setting Up An Effective Meeting

Preparation is the first important step in holding a successful meeting. My previous article established the importance of having a clear and measurable objective for holding the meeting. Participants are willing to invest their time when they feel that it will be wisely used to accomplish something important. At the end of the meeting, the measurements will make it clear that you have been successful.

The other steps of Preparation are:

• Select the participants
• Logistics
• Agenda
• Announce the meeting.

Select the Participants
You need to have the right people at the meeting. Who are the right people? If it is a staff meeting, the answer is easy. If not, the answer depends on the objective. The first question is what do you need in the meeting to achieve the objective? Information? Experience? Problem solvers? Decision makers? Once you know what you need, you will determine who the appropriate people are that can deliver the necessary components to the meeting. Determine their availability and schedule the meeting.

Remember the people you invited have a specific reason to be there. If someone wants to send a substitute, the alternate must be able to provide the same benefit as the original invitee. Take the example of a meeting to make a decision. If a decision-maker wants to send his/her number 2 person, can the substitute make the same decisions as the original invitee? If yes, carry on. If no, then you can not meet the objective. You need to decide either to change the objective from “decision making” to “recommendation” or “create options” or you need to reschedule the meeting until the decision maker can attend.

Logistics
Logistics is not a big issue for most meetings. For some meetings you may need break out rooms, food service, etc. You would know this without me telling you. Also consider equipment and tools. Line up any equipment, e.g. projectors, screens, TVs, and any supplies, e.g. flip charts, markers, that you might need. Remember to have a back-up plan for your equipment. What do I do if a bulb blows in the projector?

Agendas
Agendas set expectations. So they can be important. A single item meeting may not require an agenda. However, when there are steps that lead to the objective, I like to list the steps. This establishes expectations of a sequence and re-enforces the fact that we expect to An agenda for a single item meeting to reach a decision might look like:

• Present facts/situation
• Discuss possibilities
• Create options
• Decide on a solutions.

Multiple item meetings need an agenda to establish the order of the topics, at a minimum. It helps the attendees to understand how the meeting will progress. (Reminder: when you have several different topics, you need an objective for each topic.)

Time on an agenda can be a double edged sword. On the positive side, it helps to keep the meeting on track. On the negative side, it can constrain valuable information. Experienced meeting facilitators have other tools at their disposal to move the meeting along. I recommend that people with less experience put time on the agenda to help them manage the meeting.

Do not put more on the agenda that you know that you can accomplish. You want people to leave the meeting knowing that they did everything that they were supposed to do. This is a positive feeling. If everything is not covered, people leave the meeting with an incomplete feeling. You want people to leave your meeting feeling upbeat. So don’t crowd the agenda.

Announcement
You know that announcing the meeting includes objective(s), time, place and attendees. Listing “Preparation Required” is another way to get your meeting off to a good start. How do you want people to arrive at you meeting? What pre-work should they have done? What frame of mind should they be in? Do you wan them to have read a document so that discussion can begin immediately? Will they be getting new ideas so they should come with an open mind? When participants arrive well prepared, the meeting gets off to a much better start.

Some meetings bring people in from other locations. They may not be familiar with your location. Be kind to them and tell anything they need to know to arrive at the meeting in a positive frame of mind. Are there helpful things you can tell them about parking, building access, security, room location, other things? You don’t want them arriving annoyed. If they had known to use the back door, they would have parked out back rather than walk ½ mile around the building and then got hassled by security. Do whatever you can to have them arrive smiling.

The Preparation is done! You have done everything that you can to set up the meeting for a successful conclusion. The next step is to facilitate the meeting in a way that keeps it moving toward your objective.