Are you happy with the effectiveness of your meetings? If you are like most leaders, your meetings have room for improvement!

Here are a few tips to consider implementing:

1. Identify the purpose of the meeting – then invite the appropriate people.

2. Create a useful agenda and send it in advance! A list of topics isn’t as helpful as topics written with clarify about the activity to be performed in the meeting. For example:

• Signature Event – We will decide the date


• Community Breakfast – Joe will tell us what he learned at the breakfast


• Staff Holiday Luncheon – We will brainstorm locations for the luncheon

With this information, participants can think about these topics, as appropriate, before the meeting. Of course, you will also want to add the time allocated for each topic.

3. Facilitate your meeting.

• Ask for input before sharing your ideas – this will improve the chances that others will share ideas.


• When you ask a question, don’t answer it yourself. Give people time to process their thoughts before they speak.


• Ask quiet participants if they have anything to add to the discussion.

4. Create a Parking Lot to help keep the meeting on track.

A parking lot is a space on the whiteboard or a flip chart to list topics that come up that aren’t on the current agenda. When something comes up that off topic, stop the conversation and say “let’s put that in the parking lot.” Then write it on the board/chart and get back to your agenda. You can handle parking lot topics if you have extra time after finishing your agenda topics, or you can put them on a future agenda.

5. Leave time at the end of your meeting to:

• Clarify action items, who’s responsible and the due date


• Identify items to put on a future agenda

Start doing these four things (or the ones you aren’t yet doing.) You’ll see an immediate payback.