5 ways to improve your meetings and save money!
Before we start, if you haven’t already, check out my blog “Meetings! How much do they cost?” and my nifty “Meeting Cost Calculator”. You will be SHOCKED at how much money meetings are costing your business.
I am now going to tell you 5 ways to improve your meetings and save your business money.
Is the meeting necessary?
Before setting up a meeting, you should ask yourself the question, is this meeting necessary? It is amazing how many meetings I have been to and walked away from thinking, what was the point of that meeting?
I found this image a few years ago, which I found great at helping me to decide if a meeting is necessary.
Image by Daniel Potter at Grammarly blog 2017
Meeting Duration
When talking about meeting duration, we need to talk about peoples focus and attention.
Researches in the UK found that the average person’s attention span is only 14 minutes, which would suggest that meetings averaging 15 to 30 minutes would be the best, but other studies have suggested humans focus best in 45-minute increments. So the shorter the meeting, the better BUT preparation is key to managing a shorter meeting.
Invite only the necessary people
This may seem obvious, but I have been in many meetings with 10 or more people and only 3 or 4 people involved. So at your next meeting, think about who actually needs to be there?
I have pulled together some guidelines to help you decide on how many people to invite. The numbers will vary depending on the size of your business.
Information sharing/Communication company strategy: Unlimited attendees.
Brainstorming: I would suggest a maximum of 25.
Action planning/alignment: Fewer than 12
Discussion/Problem solving: Fewer than 20.
Decision making: 3-6.
Minutes & next steps
Personally, I cannot take minutes or notes during a meeting as I find that if I am taking notes, I will zone out from the meeting. Perhaps consider the following;
Think about recording the meeting
Having a dedicated person to take minutes and/or notes
Hire a virtual assistant to dial in and take minutes and/or notes
You should also ensure that the next steps are captured, this may not save you money in that meeting, but it will save you money in the long run because you will have a clear way forward and minimise further or clarification meetings.
Preparation is key
This section could be a whole blog on its own because this is the most crucial part of your meeting, as this will inform your decision on the other 4 ways to improve your meeting and save your business money.
The golden rule of meetings is to make sure you have an agenda and outline what you want to achieve by the end of the meeting at the start.
I remember from my time serving in the British Army; they used an acronym of “the 7 Ps”, Proper Planning Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Bonus Tip:
Think about making all of your meeting 5 to 10 minutes shorter. This will reduce the stress of any back to back meetings and eliminate the excuse of being late to your meeting.
