4 Hacks to Run Effective Meetings at Work

“That meeting was unnecessary – the same updates could have been communicated over email.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have time to work on this task. My calendar is packed with back-to-back meetings all afternoon.”

“I keep getting pulled into ad-hoc meetings where my inputs are not really needed. How am I supposed to free up time to focus on my to-do list?”

If you encounter similar frustrations about meetings at work, rest assured you are not alone. 68% of employees lack uninterrupted focus time at work, with ineffective meetings being the biggest hindrance to productivity and the ability to complete deliverables on time. In fact, up to one-third of all meetings scheduled are redundant and can be replaced by emails or alternate modes of communication. Unsurprisingly, meetings have garnered a rather bad reputation within the workplace – and become the butt of many corporate memes, reels, and employee “horror stories” on social media.

The Do’s and the Don'ts of Running Effective Meetings

Having either facilitated an ineffective meeting or been at the receiving end of one, most employees appreciate the need to learn how to run meetings effectively. It is important to adopt a tailored approach and respect the time of all parties involved – be it in a team stand-up meeting, 1:1 performance review, decision-making session, or an office-wide all-hands call.

Regardless of whether you are in a managerial position or not, knowing how to plan and facilitate a well-structured, on-time, and effective meeting with clear objectives and call-to-actions (CTAs) is of paramount importance. Where a poorly run meeting creates confusion and resentment among participants, an effectively run meeting provides clarity, builds consensus, and ensures that everyone leaves with concrete takeaways. With one in three organisations focussing heavily on enhancing employee performance and productivity, effective meeting management is a key piece in the puzzle.

Running effective meetings is not about simply following an all-in-one playbook. It is a skill that is developed and refined over time through the combination of the right preparation, execution, and consolidation.

Listed below are useful tips that can help you maximise the effectiveness of each stage of the meeting lifecycle.

1. Objectively Assess the Need for a Meeting

Far too often, meetings are scheduled unnecessarily, when the same communication can be relayed in a more time-efficient manner through emails or messaging on your internal communication platform. For example, if you are looking to provide team performance updates and report on progress fulfilment, sending an email to the relevant stakeholders with the performance dashboards and underlying insights is sufficient. You don’t need to gather the entire team for an hour-long call and dissect everyone's performance individually, especially when it is primarily a one-way communication and not a discussion. Similarly, there is evidence highlighting the ineffectiveness of collective brainstorming meetings and presentation sessions with jam-packed informative slides that are difficult for participants to digest instantly.

Whenever you are looking to set up a meeting, evaluate its necessity and map out the potential consequences of organising or not organising it. Consider if setting up a meeting is the best way to achieve your overarching objectives or if there are better alternatives for communication. Do you really need everybody on a conference call when you are mainly looking to get feedback from a select few decision makers? When in doubt, getting a second opinion from a trusted teammate or mentor may be useful. Adopting a selective and pragmatic approach enables you to maximise the quality, rather than the quantity, of your meetings.

2. Prepare for a Meeting with a Clear Purpose, Agenda, and Pre-Work

Once you have established the need to set up a meeting, it is mission-critical that you thoroughly prepare for it. This starts with identifying a clear purpose and the primary objective that you are looking to accomplish from this meeting. Once you have a well-defined purpose and know the expected outcome, you can then compile the list of required attendees and formulate the agenda for the meeting, outlining the key topics of discussion.

Assuming you are the facilitator, there are typically up to four other sets of participants (with their designated roles) who may be required in a meeting – decision makers, advisors, recommendations, and execution partners. On top of providing clarity to each participant on their respective roles, assign the pre-work and additional preparation that they need to complete prior to the meeting. For example, if you are going to present a lot of information about your upcoming product launch in the meeting, share the content with all the relevant participants ahead of schedule, so they can come prepared to the meeting having read through all the information and raise their questions, ideas, and feedback. This is key to having a fruitful discussion and driving informed decision-making without having to constantly go back and forth between different stakeholders.

No meeting preparation is effective without a well-defined, specific, time-bound, and realistic agenda. A meeting agenda allows you to enlist the key items of discussion and allocate timeframes and the individuals responsible for facilitating each item. While formulating the agenda, categorise all discussion items as high, medium, or low priority. Reserve sufficient buffer in case any high-priority items overrun, so that your meeting can still end on time, and you know the list of other items that need to be parked for another discussion.

3. Facilitate a Focussed, Constructive, and Time-bound Meeting

Facilitating an effective meeting with a diverse group of attendees is no mean feat. It requires an array of interpersonal communication skills including active listening, articulation, feedbacking, questioning, persuasion, and consensus building. The good news is that as you run various meetings with different stakeholders, you will refine these skills with time and learn best practices from others. While running a meeting, creating the right atmosphere is key to bring the best out of all participants. This involves setting ground-rules and expectations in the beginning so that everyone stays focussed, open-minded, and respectful during the meeting, especially when there are differences of opinion or potential conflicts. At the same time, reinforce positive behaviours among participants like jotting down notes and active listening, which are key to knowledge retention during and after the meeting.

Some agenda items might require you to break your attendees into smaller groups for discussions and reconvene to share their viewpoints with everyone. Allocate and empower facilitators for different sections of a meeting – this can be helpful in breaking monotony, diversifying perspectives, and lengthening people’s attention span, especially in virtual meetings where participants can be easily distracted. It is natural for some agenda items to overrun but make sure that this does not adversely impact the overall duration of the meeting. Cover the non-negotiable items and bring the discussion back on track when you see certain participants digressing from the main topic of discussion. Don’t cram everything into the meeting – if something needs to be parked for a separate discussion, then so be it. Check in with your meeting participants every now and then to see if they can grasp what is being discussed and incorporate their feedback to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

4. Close a Meeting with Clear and Measurable Action Items

How often do you engage in a great meeting where exciting ideas are discussed but there is little to no meaningful action to follow through on them afterwards? The way you consolidate the key talking points from a meeting and clearly articulate follow-up CTAs and next steps sets the tone for future courses of action. A trick to building consensus and alignment among all attendees is to ask every individual to share their biggest takeaway from the meeting, if time permits, towards the end. This also allows you to evaluate if the actual outcome from the meeting is aligned to what you originally wanted to achieve. If you notice gaps and a lack of clarity among certain participants, make sure to follow up with them individually after the meeting and address their questions or concerns.

Once your meeting is complete, review your notes and consolidate the meeting minutes. Send a summary of the key topics discussed, decisions made, and action items for different individuals along with their corresponding deadlines. Proactively seek feedback from participants on how you ran the meeting – including what you did well and what you can improve next time.

The ability to run effective meetings at work is one of the most underrated yet powerful skills that you can have at your disposal. While there are different techniques that you can adopt to enhance the quality of your meetings, it is important to realise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. With time, you will hone your craft and find an authentic and comfortable approach to running your meetings. By saving the time and cost of redundant meetings and running essential ones instead to the best of your abilities, you can enhance your individual and team’s productivity in leaps and bounds.