August 29, 2022
Resource Hub

How to run effective meetings

Organizations tend to have lots of meetings, and if not careful, they become less effective over time.

Attachments:

How to Run Effective Meetings

What is an “effective meeting?”

Definition of Effective: successful in producing a desired or intended result; fulfilling a specified function in fact.

  • Know who is necessary for attendance and who isn’t.  You may change the meeting time or location for the people that are necessary for the best outcome.
  • Invite the right people to the meeting. They are the right person, if they are necessary to add to the meeting or necessary to take away something from the meeting.
  • Make sure that you don't have all “yes people” in the room. Challenges are good for critical thinking.
  • If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

The “how to”

Create an agenda and send it out in advance of the meeting

  • Avoid impromptu meetings – they are many times not productive due to information shortage and lack of preparation required.
  • Our staff is asked to answer like this, “I can give you 10 mins now or 30-45 minutes next week.” This takes emotion out of the meeting and sets time to prepare and make the most out of it.
  • An agenda will keep you and the meeting on task. It will also honor those in the meeting.
  • If conversation falls off agenda, stop the conversation and suggest moving to a separate meeting. Be 'ok' with changing direction in meeting, if it starts going off course. Someone has to lead, if it’s your meeting, it’s your responsibility.

Agenda should include the following:

  • Title
  • Attendance
  • Purpose statement or goal – “why are we here?”
  • Topic headers for each topic that needs to be discussed
  • Assign who is responsible for next steps and when it’s needed (timeline of responsibility) - notate this for future reference.
  • Share your notes with responsibilities and deadlines to each person that attended the meeting.
  • Follow up on the timeline afterward (inspect what you expect)
  • Encourage and help with next steps, if needed to meet timeline goals

James Boyd

Business Owner, Consultant, Author, and Pastor

In 2011 James Boyd and his wife, Tracy, moved their family from Michigan to Naples, Florida, to take the helm of a dwindling congregation struggling under the weight of financial deficit. Armed with faith, prayer, generosity—and a good dose of proven business experience—James restructured the internal workings of the organization in accordance with sound finance and business principles.

About James

Subscribe

Get a weekly email on applicable advice for your church and leadership.