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Wireless Presentation. Communication. Collaboration
Meetings happen for many
reasons, rarely though are they
streamlined, efficient, productive,
to-the-point, disruption-free AND
worth the time… we do what we
can to make them better, but it’s
a constant challenge for us all.
We’ve trawled through a host of
resources, the best of the best
of the best and collated these
meeting tips for you to follow and
enhance your meetings – these
come from CEOs, consultants,
project leaders and dozens of
influential and powerful people:
all of whom face the same
problems as you and I, “how can
I meet better?”
We’ve compiled 52 tips, that 1 tip
per week.
Squeak-free meeting room chairs – People will fidget, don’t
let it distract everyone else
Secretly set the clock 10 minutes ahead of time – When
people are presenting (and don’t have their phone or
computer in front of them) they are more likely to be
concise and waffle less if they think they’re running out
of time/going to be late for whatever they have after the
meeting
Embed power outlets in the meeting room table – Why
mess about running cables from wall sockets the full length
of the room
Simple Display – there is NO good reason to have a meeting
in a room where the display or the projector require a
PhD in operating it, meeting attendees should be able to
walk in the room and intuitively know how to use it, even
if they’ve never seen it before
Don’t scrimp on the snacks – if you are providing food for
the meeting, serving the cheapest option says, “I don’t care
about you.”
Writable Walls – being able to write, demonstrate and
illustrate points like this is great for innovation… + it’s fun
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52 Tips for Killer Meetings
Timed move-arounds – if a meeting is scheduled to be
quite long, set a timer and give everyone the chance to
walk about for a bit, being physically uncomfortable is a
real blocker for productivity
Collaborative Technology – if you’re able to use software
or hardware to facilitate everyone in the meeting actually
working together on content, why would you not!
Present Wirelessly – Remove the need to fight cable
problems and switch presenter dongles or gadgets, allow
users to stream directly from their devices to the display,
saves time and increases productivity (give this its own
page)
Stick to the Time Limit – before the meeting, perhaps
when inviting people to attend, make it clear how long
the meeting will last. Do NOT go over it. You’ll learn to get
things done quicker and with less time wasted
Schedule Regular Meetings – if you know you’ll need to
meet every week on a certain issue, don’t leave it up to
‘whenever, wherever, whatever’, get everyone to block
off the time in their schedule and set a recurring meeting
schedule for the same time and room every week – if a
meeting is routine to people it’s less likely to be disruptive
to their flow
4
Pick Your Time Wisely – If possible, schedule meetings at
times that don’t interrupt peoples regular working flow
or patterns… first thing in the morning, just before lunch
or after perhaps… ideally, people don’t stop what they’re
doing, come to the meeting, then go straight back in – this
is an interruption and should be avoided
Properly Prepare – don’t turn up to a meeting that you’ve
scheduled poorly equipped. Know your talking points,
have any distributables, know that any refreshments are
available, that the technology is already set up
Pre-distribute Relevant Materials – why waste time in the
meeting handing around documents that are essential to
the meeting… send it beforehand or stream it live and cut
that whole section out of the meeting
Reach Conclusions Often – if a meeting covers different
topics, say – 4 different topics in an hour long meeting,
with 4 decisions that need made, have self-discipline that
every 15 minutes, a decision has to be made and the topic
is left behind
Banish Tangents – Tangents are the enemy. Avoid them.
Allow Creativity – it’s important to be able to see when a
tangent has opportunity for real exploration. Maybe don’t
disrupt the meeting by discussing it but make sure it’s
followed up on if not.
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52 Tips for Killer Meetings
Assign Follow-Up Roles – if something is decided upon in
a meeting as, “needing doing,” make sure it’s clear who
has ownership of the task, even if a task involves multiple
people, assign one person as ‘owning’ the job.
Document Key Content – any content that comes up in
a meeting that is useful to team members, store in a
communal location such as Dropbox, Drive, Box – people
shouldn’t waste time hunting for what they know exists.
Appropriate Follow Ups – Make sure that tasks that require
actions are followed up on, don’t just assume that ‘someone
is on it’. Also, if people who own tasks need advice, direction
or information, much easier just to ‘touch base’ than have
to hold a whole new meeting on the topic.
Crystal Clear Agenda – every single person coming to a
meeting should know (well) in advance of the start what
the full agenda is, being properly prepared is key for
productivity
Limited Attendance – not everyone needs to be in a meeting,
make sure that those who are in a meeting actually have
to be there
Everyone gets a turn – when meetings have the right
people in them, the contribution of the collective allows
the outcomes to be that much smarter
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Tool Up – don’t be afraid to use technology to facilitate the
meeting or aspects of it. The right tool for the right job –
but know how to use it before the start of the meeting
Start on time – just as important as ending on time
Do you even need to meet? – is there any way the topics
and discussion of the meeting could be covered by an
email? Much less disruptive to people’s day…
Eliminate negativity – If you want to run a meeting with
people in it who care and want to contribute, don’t shout
down ideas or insult something you believe is a stupid
thing to say
Acknowledge the meeting’s character – is the meeting for
brainstorming ideas? Is it a project review? Is it budget
planning? Is it for collaboration or mere information
sharing? Each different type of meeting
Ensure Understanding – whether in a quick moment
after the main bulk of the meeting and before everyone
leaves (promptly I might add) if there’s anything people
didn’t understand, gauge it here! Otherwise it can be done
afterwards via email but that’s another disruption to the
day…
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52 Tips for Killer Meetings
Identify the Note Taker – make sure (preferably before the
meeting starts) who is in charge of taking notes through
the meeting
Team Announcements – you have people in a room, use a
few seconds at the start for housekeeping if you need to
(just don’t overrun at the end because of it!)
Identify Blockers – if someone is running into a brick wall
on an issue being discussed, make sure everyone knows its
ok to speak up, better that than someone gets completely
left behind.
Recap – try to leave adequate time at the end to quickly
(actually, lightning speed) fire through what was covered,
what the outcomes are and who owns any actions required
Quick Minutes – try not to leave a long period of time
between culmination of a meeting and minutes & notes
being distributed – people may well need them for their
follow up actions
Open Ended Ideation – if the character of your meeting is
for idea creation, innovation and exploration of concepts…
maybe putting a scheduled end time isn’t the best idea,
what if ideas don’t start flowing until 90seconds before
the end…? But make sure everyone is aware of this so they
don’t have schedule clashes if this is what might happen
8
Midweek Meetings – This should come as no surprise,
people aren’t necessarily at their most productive on a
Friday… the same is true of Mondays, sometimes people
aren’t back into full work mode yet. Consider Tuesday as
people haven’t yet put in half a working week beforehand
The Meeting ‘Parking Lot’ – make sure that any issues
touched on that should be explored further are kept track
of for future reference or discussion
Collect feedback – anonymously might be a good option
too, if you want honesty… perhaps meetings aren’t as good
as you think or a particular type of meeting gets better
results than others for your team members… don’t be
afraid to ask for it and don’t be afraid of the results
Live Note Taking – Where possible, have the note taker
displayed on a screen or projector, if they take a note that
people feel doesn’t expand on a point enough or miss
a topic they deem unimportant but to someone else is
crucial, seeing it can avoid unnecessary problems down
the line
Short & Standing – If a meeting is intended to be short, do
away with sitting. Nothing gets people more on track and
wanting to finish than wanting to have a good sit down at
their desk
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52 Tips for Killer Meetings
Silent the World – Make sure (in advance) that everybody
knows to turn off their notifications/mute their devices
in the meeting. Perhaps set a punishment for a ringing
phone… has to bring the coffees to the next meeting?
Have the full agenda visible – Either on a display/projector
or in the pre-distributed notes, people should be able
to look and see that in 4 minutes we’re supposed to be
moving on to topic 4
Prompt or Else – Have a casual fine for the last person to
turn up to a meeting… for example, last one in the meeting
room door has to put $1 in the donut jar
Justify your existence – Sounds harsh, but hang on a
minute… if you find that your meetings have people
attending that don’t need to be there and it isn’t being
sorted… in the first couple of minutes, go around the room
and have everyone state their name and why it’s important
that they’re there… you’ll soon see results when people
have to say, “I’m here because Bob said I should be…”
Reduce the Time – Think a meeting will take about
90minutes? Why not schedule it for 80minutes every once
in a while… maybe it’ll work for you, maybe you really need
those 90minutes… but how will you know if you don’t try?
10
Keep Score – when you gather feedback from meeting
attendees, simply ask was this a win or a fail. If you have
loads more wins than fails after a month or so, you’re doing
good – and you should be able to see what to improve. If
you have more fails, it’s time to shake up your meeting
approach
Democracy or Tyranny – make sure it’s clear in a meeting
where decisions need to be made if the group leader is
deciding or if consensus is required…
Don’t be afraid to cancel – there’s no point having a meeting
for the meeting’s sake, if you have a regularly scheduled
meeting and you realise it isn’t needed this week, cancel
it – give people prior notice that they don’t need to disrupt
their day to come to a pointless meeting, believe me, they’ll
thank you for it
Cut people off – it sounds mean but if someone is waffling,
you’re going to have to stop them. Maybe agree a ‘safe
word’ with your team members for meetings, if someone
says, “Has anyone got a ruler?” it’s the speakers cue to stop
waffling. It’s slightly less rude than, “Karen if you could just
stop talking now that would be great.”
Interact with the Information – if there’s a display, a
projector, a whiteboard or something similar – use it. Don’t
hide behind a laptop for the duration if you can help it. Put
on own page
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52 Tips for Killer Meetings
Interrupt the Interrupter – if someone is being rude and
interrupting people when they speak, be brave enough to
interrupt them and tell them “Sorry Gary but Bob was still
speaking, continue Bob…”
Switch up the Seats – Don’t be afraid to play musical chairs,
people are creatures of habit, sometimes you need them
out of their comfort zone, try not to let people sit next
to their desk-mates or who they normally sit beside in
meetings
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Montage lets you wirelessly connect up to 12 attendees on a main meeting
room display fast and efficiently – it’s as simple as connecting to your Wi-Fi.
Any attendee can bring their content to the fore with a simple click or swipe.
‘Passing presenter control’ becomes a thing of the past, everyone’s contribution
is available as and when it’s required.
With file sharing and annotation capabilities, the meeting actually ends when
the meeting ends – eliminating follow up reporting, note taking and updated
content distribution.
To find our more and to discuss how you can use Montage to improve your
meetings go to www.displaynote.com/montage
Wireless Presentation. Communication. Collaboration