Novel Ideas to Supercharge Your Meetings

When you ask someone what they do for a living, it’s not likely that they’ll answer with “Well, I sit in meetings all day.” But when you look at the average businessperson’s schedule, it’s clear that meetings make up a substantial part of many jobs — especially for those in leadership.

Meetings are often dismissed as a waste of time, but meetings that have a clear purpose and are well run can actually make things go more smoothly and save time.

And what happens after those meetings is just as important.

Dealing with meetings is a frequent topic in my work with hundreds of organizations as a leader. I’ve devised a simple system to help my clients have the kind of meetings they need for the best results possible.

An important part of that system is ending a meeting.

Here are the three things you need to make sure you do before adjourning any meeting:

Confirm key decisions

Make sure everyone is on the same page about any decisions that were made. It’s important that everyone comes away with a shared understanding because it will help focus everyone to move in the same direction. You can ensure this by putting two quick questions to the group:

• What topics did we discuss?