Effective decisions make a world different when it comes to a thriving business. Good business decisions can even turn a struggling business around. And the thing is, business decisions are often made in meetings. Small decisions are often made in day-to-day operations and memos. However, the more important, business-oriented decisions are often made in dedicated, decision-making meetings.
Since this type of meeting will have a significant impact on your business’s future, you need to plan and organize a productive and effective decision-making meeting.
Here are several meeting planning tips to consider:
1. State The Meeting’s Objectives And Goals
Any effective meeting must have an objective or purpose. This means that being in it, the participants can achieve the desired outcome. For a meeting to meet this objective or outcome, you need to be clear about what the agenda is and stick to it.
In general, people simply call for a meeting to discuss something without considering what the goal or outcome would be. So, as you draft a meeting invitation, you need to clearly describe the goal of your meeting.
Let it be known that this will be a decision-making meeting and include the topics needed to discuss and decide about. If your objectives are clearly defined, then you can plan the contents of your meeting and determine everything else.
2. Invite The Right People
Next to your objective, you also need to determine the right people that should attend the meeting.
For an effective decision-making meeting, you need to invite those who can provide valuable insights and information as well as those who are able and should be making the decisions.
Unlike team-building or brainstorming meetings where it’s best to have a large group attend the session, a decision-making meeting is reserved for a smaller group.
You should use the purpose and goal of your meeting as a guideline on who should be present. Don’t invite anyone who’s not necessary to be in the meeting. After all, schedules are hectic, and every minute of their workday is valuable.
In general, people that should be invited to a decision-making meeting include managers and OICs as well as shareholders of the business. But this will really depend on the type of meeting you’ll have and whether decisions will only affect a specific department.
For instance, a decision-making meeting for upgrading the IT system should include team leaders and a few key members from the IT department. Depending on the goal of the meeting, this may also include team leaders from a variety of departments since IT decisions will most likely have a significant impact on other business departments.
3. Use Time Wisely
No one wants to waste precious time, especially for people who do business. With the amount of time spent in meetings, you owe it to those attending and yourself to streamline the meeting as much as possible.
From your objective, everything that should happen in the meeting should be planned as well. If a topic does not tackle and push the objective further, it’s superfluous and shouldn’t be included at all.
To make sure that you cover only what should be covered and stick to relevant topics and activities, you need to formulate an agenda. This agenda is what you’ll refer to in order to keep the meeting running on point and on time.
In order to prepare a meeting agenda, you need to consider these factors:
- Priorities: What should the meeting cover?
- Sequence: In what order should you cover each topic?
- Timing: How much time should you spend on each topic?
Always use your agenda as a time guide. If you think that time is running out for a specific topic, consider hurrying the discussion and pushing attendees to decide.
Above all, make sure that everyone respects each other’s time. This means that the meeting should commence on time. And you shouldn’t spend time recapping for latecomers either.
4. Help Attendees To Be Prepared
It is always a good idea to send out briefing materials to the meeting attendees a few days or hours in advance. This way, they can prepare for a productive conversation.
Another way you can help your participants be prepared for a meeting is to add any questions that they have on your meeting agenda or any suggestions to modify it.
You can do this by using a collaborative meeting tool. These tools can help you and other members to collaborate on meeting agendas, allowing participants to contribute to the conversation and providing any important insights that could possibly add value to your meeting.
5. Assign Roles
Assigning roles to attendees ensures an effective meeting since each person has a specific focus and a key contribution to make. Here are some of the key meeting roles you need to specify:
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Facilitator
The facilitator guides the meeting discussion. They make sure that all sides of an issue are raised. This is particularly suitable for those with leadership skills and can practice neutrality.
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Timekeeper
The timekeeper is the one that helps move the discussion along productively and efficiently. They ensure that a topic is finished or completed in their allotted time.
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Scribe
The scribe is responsible for capturing or jotting down key ideas and decisions during the meeting. Also, they are the ones who can summarize the notes and distribute them after the meeting.
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Contributor And Experts
The contributors are the ones keeping the discussion on track and lively. Meanwhile, an expert is a contributor with specific experience and knowledge on a specific issue. These people can give valuable insights and feedback to improve certain processes and business decisions.
Conclusion
Not all decision-making meetings are the same. There are good meetings and bad meetings. Plan a bad meeting and you simply waste everyone’s time and company resources. However, an effective decision-making meeting can help your business scale and thrive.
So, make sure to follow the above tips to effectively organize and plan for a decision-making meeting that can push your business to even more success and reach new heights.
