Understanding how to lead a meeting well is an important skill which is often overlooked because a lot of people have simply become used to having unproductive meetings. If you can start your first job with a clear idea of what a good meeting looks like it will set you apart from your peers. For employees at all levels to thrive at work, they need to understand what goes into planning and running an effective meeting.
When should I organise a meeting?
When deciding whether or not to run a meeting, the first question you should ask yourself is: “What am I trying to get out of this meeting?”.
If your answer is “I want to share information with everybody” or “I want to provide an update”, then you should ask yourself: “Does this really need to be a meeting or can I achieve the same result by writing something down and distributing it amongst the team?”.
It might sometimes be necessary to hold a meeting to share information with the team or provide a status update on a project if there are decisions that need to be made, in most cases, however, you’re better off posting in your internal comms channel or asking relevant people to post their updates on shared docs or collaboration tools you use. This way people can digest information at a time that works for them, you aren’t interrupting anybody’s day and people can refer back to these points or comment when necessary. You’ve achieved the same result with less involvement and effort from everybody.