SOLUTION 19
ALWAYS FOLLOW UP ON MEETINGS
‘I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings … Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting.’William Goldman
By following the advice in Solution 18, you will be on your way to running effective meetings. However, a meeting can only be judged a success once the actions agreed there have been followed up. Make sure you have an effective system for capturing, summarizing and assigning action items to the appropriate individuals or teams. You also need to follow through to make sure the decisions recorded have been acted upon.
for people to ignore what they agreed to do in a meeting is to waste the time of everyone who attended
Assign a meeting documenter – someone whose responsibility it is to record everything of importance and to make the notes (also known as the minutes) available after the meeting. The documenter should work with a copy of the agenda to hand, so notes can refer to sections of the meeting.
QUICK FIX: COMPLEX MEETINGS
For particularly complex discussions, consider having two documenters, each taking notes independently. This gives you a better chance of capturing all the pertinent information. Combine the two sets of notes into one set of minutes before distributing.
FOLLOW-THROUGH
Aim to distribute the minutes within 24 hours of the meeting. The more time that passes between the meeting and the distribution of the notes, the less relevant they will seem. If any of the points raised at the meeting require further actions, ensure it is clear who is responsible for following up on these, and set deadlines for when this needs to be done by.
Keep a check on the progress of any action points. Make sure employees have the resources and information they require. Do you need to pave the way for interaction with another department? Do employees need your help to access information or data?
A couple of weeks after the original meeting, consider issuing a follow-up document to record what was promised, what happened, and what is still outstanding. Schedule a follow-up meeting if necessary.
People like to know what happened as a result of their discussion and input, so do make sure you communicate the outcomes of implemented changes and solutions, either through memos or emails. Most importantly, thank people for their suggestions and participation.
QUICK FIX: BETTER MEETINGS
If you want to learn how to run better meetings, you need to hear from the attendees how they think things went. What worked? What didn’t? The more you can learn, the more you can improve future meetings.