how to organize an effective meeting explain critical thinking

What is an effective meeting?

“This meeting should have been an email.” Emblazoned on coffee mugs, endless memes, and your colleagues’ faces on their ninth video call of the day, this sentence may end up being a catchphrase of the modern era.

As the pandemic rewrote the rule book for coworking and office culture, new processes and untested systems allowed inefficiencies to creep in —inefficiencies that included meetings scheduled for the sake of unstructured discussion or even basic human interaction rather than for productivity. While interacting might be easier than ever, value-creating collaboration isn’t—and its quality seems to be deteriorating .

Effective meetings aren’t just about keeping ourselves from going around the bend. When meetings aren’t run well—or when there are too many of them— decision  making becomes slower and the quality of decisions suffers. According to one McKinsey survey , 61 percent of executives said that at least half the time they spent making decisions—much of it surely spent in meetings—was ineffective. Just 37 percent of respondents said their organizations’ decisions were both timely and high quality. And, in a different survey , 80 percent of executives were considering or already implementing changes in meeting structure and cadence in response to the evolution of how people worked during the pandemic.

What’s more, when leaders try to solve for inefficient decision making, they too often look to organizational charts and vertical-command relationships. Rarely, in McKinsey’s experience, do they see the real issue at hand: poor design and execution of collaborative interactions. In other words, you guessed it, ineffective meetings.

It doesn’t have to be this way. When meetings are run well, they not only foster better decisions but also leave attendees feeling energized and motivated to carry the momentum forward independently. For tips on how to put a stop to video call fatigue and restart your team’s productivity, read on.

Learn more about McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice .

What does time management have to do with effective meetings?

“The only thing on Earth that never lies to you is your calendar ,” says renowned business author and McKinsey alum Tom Peters. “That’s why I’m a fanatic on the topic of time management. But when you use that term, people think, ‘Here’s an adult with a brain. And he’s teaching time management. Find something more important, please.’ But something more important doesn’t exist.”

Endless, diffuse meetings, according to Peters, take up far too much of executives’ precious working time. Half of leaders’ time, he says, citing an idea from the Israeli executive Dov Frohman, should be unscheduled. What should they do with all that unstructured time? One typically cheeky suggestion from Peters is to read more.

The reality is that effective meetings and good time management exist in a virtuous circle. Good time management means you feel empowered to turn down unnecessary meetings—and better meetings mean you spend the rest of your time feeling more purposeful in carrying out your work.

How can leaders address the problem of time scarcity?

McKinsey’s experience shows that leaders may want to stop thinking about time management as primarily an individual problem and start addressing it institutionally. Increasingly, time management is an organizational issue with roots deeply embedded in corporate cultures.

Unsurprisingly, the solution seems to be balance. Executives in one McKinsey survey  who reported being satisfied with the way their time is allocated spent 34 percent of their working time interacting with external stakeholders (including boards, customers, and investors), 39 percent in internal meetings (including one-on-ones with direct reports, leadership team meetings, and other employee gatherings), and 24 percent working alone.

Here are five ways to achieve optimal balance in allocating time :

• Have a ‘time leadership’ budget—and a process for allocating it. When adding a project or initiative, companies should analyze how much leadership attention, guidance, and intervention each will need. In our experience, this is the best way to move toward the goal of treating leaders’ time as a finite resource—one that is as precious as a company’s financial capital.
• Consider time when you introduce organizational change. Understanding the time required to achieve goals is critical to the long-term success of any organizational change. The hours needed to manage, lead, or supervise an employee can leave managers with little time left over. Getting this balance right can be tough—having too few managers could lead them to feel overwhelmed, with more direct reports than they can manage. But having too many managers can cause redundancies and unnecessary complexity.
• Ensure that individuals routinely measure and manage their time. Time analysis exercises can yield surprising results—and can inspire time management that more closely aligns with organizational priorities. Including time-related metrics in performance reviews is another driver of behavioral change.
• Refine the principal calendar. Revisit all standing meetings and make an honest assessment of which ones are being held out of habit and which ones are genuinely useful.
• Provide high-quality administrative support. In a survey of executives on how they allocate their time , 85 percent of those who considered themselves effective time managers reported that they received strong support in scheduling and allocating time. Only 7 percent of ineffective time allocators said the same. In the case of one global chemical company, the administrative assistant of the CEO considers it her responsibility to ensure that the organization’s strategic objectives are reflected in the way she allocates the CEO’s time.

Learn more about McKinsey’s  People & Organizational Performance Practice .

What are three questions you should ask yourself before scheduling a meeting?

Good meetings nurture better decision making . On the flip side, inefficient meetings not only waste time but also create distraction and confusion even when people are working independently. Here are three questions you can ask when scheduling a meeting  that can help create the clarity needed for efficient decision making.

Should this even be a meeting at all? Recurring meetings are particularly susceptible to migration from the original purpose toward something more diffuse. Check in with stakeholders to ensure that the frequency is right (weekly meetings could be changed to monthly, perhaps), or think about whether decisions could be best made by an individual—with, of course, guidance from others.

Then go deeper. Examine whether your company’s culture is to encourage meetings rather than individual decision making. To remedy this, if you’re a leader, think twice before reflexively accepting any meeting invitation as it appears in your inbox. The goal should be to treat leadership capacity as a finite resource— just like your company’s financial capital .

What is this meeting for? A meeting’s title and its purpose are not the same. When the latter isn’t clear, meetings can seem frustrating at best and futile at worst. To help avoid this, companies can appoint a “chief of staff” for certain efforts or products. This person collates materials before meetings, ensures that they are distributed ahead of time, and verifies that the due diligence has been done to necessitate a meeting in the first place. This can lead to better-informed participants, which in turn can lead to more effective time spent in meetings—and, ultimately, better decisions.

What is everyone’s role? Even if a meeting has a clear purpose, it’s of little use if there is no one present deputized to make a decision . Equally, even if it’s clear who the decider is, it’s a mistake to hold a meeting when people are unsure of participants’ roles. McKinsey analysts have seen poor role clarity stymie productivity and cause frustration, especially when decisions involve complicated business activities that cut across organizational boundaries. Blurry accountability is especially costly in an era where speed and agility confer a competitive advantage .

Meeting participants can be divided into four roles:

• Decision makers should be the only participants with a vote, and the ones with the responsibility to decide as they see fit. Sometimes decision makers will need to “disagree and commit,” to use a phrase coined by Jeff Bezos in a 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders.
• Advisers give input and shape the decision. They typically have a big stake in the decision’s outcome.
• Recommenders conduct analyses, explore alternatives, illuminate pros and cons, and ultimately recommend a course of action to the advisers and decision makers. The more recommenders the better—for the process, not the decision meeting itself.
• Execution partners don’t give input in making the decision but are deeply involved in implementation. For optimal speed and clarity, execution partners should be in the room when the decision is made so that they can envision how the implementation will evolve from the decision.

OK, I’ve eliminated all unnecessary meetings and assigned specific purposes to each one. Now what?

Great work. Now you can assign each meeting to one of the following three categories , and make specific shifts to improve the outcomes.

• Decision-making meetings. This category includes routine decisions, like quarterly business reviews, as well as complex or uncertain decisions, like decisions about investments. In order to make high-quality decisions quickly, it’s critical to clarify exactly who is going to make them. Some of these meetings can be held virtually, but complex decision-making meetings are better in person. These meetings should result in a final decision (even if not everyone agrees).
• Creative solutions and coordination meetings. These include innovation sessions—for instance, in support of a new product—as well as routine working sessions, like daily check-ins. Rather than telling people what to do, leaders should work to empower employees to make their own (supported) decisions and to spend more time on high-quality coaching sessions. As with decision-making meetings, creative solutions and coordinating meetings can be virtual—but most innovation sessions should be in person. Innovation sessions should result in potential solutions and prepare for a decision meeting, whereas routine working meetings can result in next steps.
• Information-sharing meetings. Live interaction can be useful for information sharing, especially when an interpretive lens is required or if the information is sensitive. But information-sharing meetings are often regarded as having limited value. Many organizations have recently moved to drastically improve meeting efficiency. Netflix, for example, has limited the duration of meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes  and requires that meetings involving one-way information sharing be canceled in favor of other mechanisms like a memo, podcast, or vlog. Early data from Netflix shows that the company has reduced meetings by more than 65 percent and that more than 85 percent of employees favor the approach. The goal of these meetings should be to increase awareness of the new information shared in the meeting.

What are some best practices for video meetings?

Establishing best practices for meetings might seem like common sense—but they are not commonly practiced. Here are some helpful tips from Karin M. Reed , author of the 2021 book Suddenly Virtual: Making Remote Meetings Work :

• Time: The most effective meetings are short meetings. Rather than scheduling a two-hour call with ten agenda items, cut it down to a 20-minute meeting with two agenda items. There are limits to people’s endurance and attention spans in the virtual environment.
• Participants: When determining the number of attendees for decision-making meetings, the sweet spot is five to seven. More than seven attendees in any meeting can result in an unwieldy discussion.
• Appearance: Pay attention to your appearance when hosting a videoconference. It’s not a matter of vanity—it shows respect for your conversation partner and can help you get your message across. Light your face properly: facial expressions are critical to conveying a message. And anything that takes attention away from you, whether it’s a crackly audio connection or a silly picture of Uncle Rupert in the background, will distract from your message.
• Eye contact: Look at your camera lens when you’re talking, not at your screen. This goes against our natural impulses, but eye contact is critical when you’re having a conversation. And to maintain eye contact on a video call, you need to look at your camera.
• Inclusion: Leaders should engage in proactive facilitation to ensure that everyone has the chance to say their piece. Cold calling on people—gently, and with good intention—lets people know that it’s their time to speak. Even if someone doesn’t have anything to add, they will have felt included.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice . Also check out organizational structure–related job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced:

• “ If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done? ,” January 10, 2022, Aaron De Smet , Caitlin Hewes, Mengwei Luo, J. R. Maxwell , and Patrick Simon  
• “ Author Talks: Karin M. Reed on virtual meetings ,” April 20, 2021
• “ To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings ,” November 9, 2020, Aaron De Smet  and Leigh Weiss
• “ Want a better decision? Plan a better meeting ,” McKinsey Quarterly , May 8, 2019, Aaron De Smet , Gregor Jost , and Leigh Weiss  
• “ Tom Peters on leading the 21st-century organization ,” McKinsey Quarterly , September 1, 2014, Aaron De Smet  and Suzanne Heywood
• “ Making time management the organization’s priority ,” McKinsey Quarterly , January 1, 2013, Frankki Bevins  and Aaron De Smet

Want to know more about effective meetings?

Related articles.

If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done?

To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings

Author Talks: Karin M. Reed on virtual meetings

6 Tips to Run a Highly Effective Meeting, Backed by Science

Meetings can be terrifying, especially when you don’t have a plan! Learn how to run your meeting effortlessly and effectively!

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Have you ever left a meeting that felt like it was a complete waste of your time?

Research shows that only 50% of the time spent in meetings is effective and engaging. Over $37 billion is wasted on unproductive meetings each year to make things worse.

For most of us, this isn’t a surprise. Without apparent purpose, leadership, or organization, a lousy meeting can drag on forever.

However, genuinely effective meetings leave everyone feeling organized, motivated, and clear on what they need to get done in the following days or weeks.

If you want to plan and host a successful meeting, you’ll need a proper framework and time management strategy to lead the discussion in the right direction.

Here’s how to run a meeting that will get things done. Use these 6 simple strategies to empower and organize your team to take proactive action toward your business goals.

What Makes a Successful Meeting?

Homo sapiens is a social species. For thousands of years, humans have come together in small groups or larger “tribal” gatherings to discuss matters of importance, from business to family to communal and beyond.

No matter how much technology is added to our daily lives, meetings remain vital to accomplishing a shared vision within business units. Meetings define both the cultural and strategic frameworks for our workplaces.

Whether remote or in-person, effective meetings are crucial for teamwork and productivity .

Sure, efficient meetings can speed through an agenda in a short amount of time. Still, truly effective meetings deliver a tangible result or outcome.

Everyone should leave with a feeling of clarity and confidence in exactly what they need to do, how they need to do it, and when it needs to be done.

Successful meetings should:

• Define a collective identity of a group and help each individual understand their role within the team
• Inspire creativity and cooperation amongst a team
• Take individual ideas and refine them to actionable solutions
• Clarify collective goals and deadlines so that each person sees their role in achieving them

To run an effective meeting that provides the highest ROI for your time and your staff’s wages, follow these 6 time-tested steps to get organized ahead of time.

6 Simple Steps to Run a Successful Meeting

• Define the Meeting Objectives
• Create an Agenda + Send Calendar Invites
• Create a Safe Space for Collaboration
• Strategically Choose Attendees + Appoint Important Roles
• Best Practices to Stay on Track
• End With Clear Actions, Owners, and Timelines

Have you ever showed up to a meeting and wondered, “why the heck am I here?”

Successful meetings have a clear purpose. Without an objective, there is no reason for holding a meeting.

As a leader, you must differentiate between the need for essential communications (which can be done through email, Slack, or phone call) versus the need to call a strategic meeting to accomplish an important goal (like project planning, solving a problem, setting a goal , making a decision, or mapping out a customer journey).

There are two primary types of meetings:

• Routine meetings (ex: Monday morning recap and projections, Friday team meetings, etc.)
• Strategic meetings (ex: task force meetings, problem-solving, creating a plan, etc.)

Although each type of meeting may be run differently, they require an objective. 

To clarify your objectives, jot them down! Better yet, send the meeting objectives out with the agenda, so everyone is on the same page.

Be as clear and concise as possible with your meeting objective, for example:

• Brainstorming session for how to reduce customer cart abandonment
• Explore third-party solutions to increase efficiency in online search traffic
• Present first quarter project progress and determine next steps
• Hindsight meeting with key stakeholders to celebrate wins and identify opportunities to improve

If you can’t describe why you’re holding a meeting in a sentence or two, you probably don’t need to have the meeting.

The meeting objective should have results-oriented terms and actionable goals. There may be several goals within the more significant objective. Still, these should all be defined for the team to understand ahead of time.

This is your north star and the guiding purpose of the meeting.

Watch our video below to learn ways to make your meetings better and more efficient:

Next comes your agenda, which is like your compass pointing you toward that north star objective. Without a compass to guide you, the entire team will feel like a ship lost at sea.

We all know that time is a precious resource. An agenda should directly support progress towards meeting your objectives. At the same time, sticking to a meeting agenda demonstrates that you are an effective and organized leader, which means more trust and dedication from your team.

We’ve all been in one of those meetings that were far too short to cover everything that needed to be discussed.

On the flip side, there is nothing worse than a meeting that gets derailed into off-topic conversations and goes on for far longer than anticipated.

Find a happy medium between the two by scheduling the meeting length and time around achieving the specific objective at hand.

Bonus Tip for Introverts : If you have introverts on your team who need to speak up, use the agenda to give them some time to prep. Introverts appreciate being able to prepare for speaking or brainstorming sessions. Learn more about how to make introversion into a superpower . 

Meeting Length

The length of an effective meeting should reflect how many people are involved and how in-depth the project is.

Each agenda item should have a clear amount of time allotted to it, for example:

• Introduction/call to the meeting (2 minutes)
• Review previous meeting notes (2 min.)
• Present objective or problem at hand (3 min.)
• Open brainstorming/group discussion (10 min.)
• Report from team 1 (10 min.)
• Questions for team 1 (3 min.)
• News from team 2 (10 min.)
• Questions for team 2 (3 min.)
• Updates from the chief executive (5 min.)
• Closing statements / clarify Actions, Owners, and Timelines (5 min.)

This agenda reflects a complex team project with 10 or more people. A smaller team should not require as much time.

In general, meetings should never last more than 60 minutes because people might lose focus and interest.

Keep it short and to the point!

You can always have a further discussion later on.

Meeting Scheduling Time

The timing of the meeting should be chosen based on what needs to get done. Research shows that brainstorming, creativity, and strategic thinking are best in the mornings when the prefrontal cortex is most active and we have the most mental energy.

On the other hand, we are typically better at creative problem solving later in the day because we are less distracted and more relaxed.

Don’t forget to consider time zone differences (if you’re a remote team ) and respect other calendar items within your organization.

Keep the agenda as simple as possible to keep your team engaged. Each agenda item should be allotted a specific amount of time so that everyone can know their time constraints for discussions or presentations.

Send Agenda With Calendar Invite

It is best practice to send the agenda out ahead of time if possible! Include the text or document linked in the Calendar Invite. You can also display the agenda on a projector screen or whiteboard during the meeting to keep everyone on the same page.

Be sure that only necessary team members are on the invite list for maximum productivity.

Collaboration can only happen when people feel safe and comfortable. These are the best tips for creating a safe space that yields truly effective meetings every time.

Lay Out the Guidelines

Establish guidelines when the meeting starts to ensure that participants feel comfortable speaking and sharing their ideas while remaining respectful of others and not getting too off-topic.

You can also note that you prefer cell phones to be silent to minimize distractions.

It’s essential to make sure each team member feels heard while encouraging balanced participation. Consider a “round table” approach where everyone gets a moment to speak.

Pro Tip: Want to level up your meeting game? Whether working remotely or in person, choosing the right communication tool is vital for optimum collaboration.

Psychological Safety

Ineffective meetings allow one person or a handful of people to dominate the conversation while others sit on the sidelines.

A great meeting invites a feeling of safety amongst team members by welcoming new ideas and removing the fear of public criticism.

A Harvard Business Review study found that the highest performing teams with the most successful meetings have trust, confidence, and curiosity. Their work environments do not promote punishment for mistakes.

Pro Tip: The most productive teams receive appreciation regularly. Learn more about the 10 Must-Know Productivity Secrets of High Performing Teams .

In other words, to run effective meetings, you need to be a positive leader that is collaborative and kind. You can do this by keeping to a few steadfast rules both in and out of meetings:

• Use positive reinforcement to recognize achievements rather than magnifying shortcomings.
• Never publicly reprimand an employee in front of the team.
• Avoid blaming any specific team or individual for a problem. Research shows that this destroys trust and confidence in a leader. Instead, opt for curiosity and stay solution-oriented.
• Ask for feedback. Asking for feedback increases people’s trust in their leaders .

Comfortable Ambiance

Research has shown that over a third of workers are unhappy with the ambiance of their offices.

Nobody wants to meet in one of those horrible, dimly lit, cold, dreary board rooms!

Create a pleasant ambiance (such as open windows or a decorated room) or consider providing beverages to help people relax a bit more.

Details like temperature, light, comfortable chairs, and even a few indoor plants can help create calmer, more effective meetings.

Consider an Icebreaker

Would your team like a non-awkward icebreaker ? For meetings where you want to encourage bonding and creativity, try a specifically chosen icebreaker, like one of the 8 in the video below:

Meetings are expensive and time-consuming. Avoid inviting anyone who is not needed to achieve the meeting objective.

At the same time, be sure that you have enough participants for a productive open discussion with diverse perspectives. A good meeting strikes a balance between minimizing attendees and maximizing the creative potential of a group.

Harvard Business Review has an excellent Meeting Cost Calculator that can help you figure out who is best included on your attendee list.

Choosing Roles

Running effective meetings always requires appointing roles ahead of time.

Who are the key decision-makers in your meeting?

As the host, will you be the facilitator? Will team leaders also be reporting about their department or projects?

Who is the notetaker? They will be responsible for keeping track of the discussion and recording every good idea or action plan agreed on.

They are also responsible for sending out a meeting recap with actions, owners, and timelines that were agreed on during the meeting.

Who is the timekeeper? They can help keep everyone on track with the agenda plan.

If you are running a project management meeting, be sure that key stakeholders from each department or project unit are ready to report on their area of responsibility. Allot a specific amount of time for each presentation in the agenda items.

So, after all this planning, how are you going to keep everyone on topic and focused for the whole duration of your meeting?

Surveys show that executives consider 67% of all meetings to be failures .

Failed meetings can be caused by a lack of objectivity, a poorly planned agenda, bad discussions, an unengaged team, or all of the above.

Regardless of the problem, it’s generally your job as the leader to fix them. Keep meeting participants on track by laying ground rules and keeping things interesting.

Pro Tip: Some meetings can crash and burn due to a phenomenon known as Zoom Fatigue. Here’s how to combat it: 20 Scientific Tips to Beat Zoom Fatigue, According to Your Personality

Avoid Side Discussions

Establish ground rules in your introduction to minimize side discussions, and everyone knows the core topic at hand.

If side discussions begin to happen, kindly re-route the team back to the objectives and promise to revisit those ideas in the future.

Use a whiteboard or chat recorded by the notetaker to jot down unrelated topics that can be reviewed in future meetings. 

Keep ’em Engaged

To run an effective meeting, you need your team to be engaged.

Good meetings are exciting and provide plenty of mental stimulation. 

Here are a few tips for leading engaging meetings:

• Don’t drone on and on in a monotone.
• Use visuals or slides on a screen.
• Keep the meeting short and to the point.
• Ask questions periodically so participants can contribute and remain interested.

Engagement is especially challenging in remote meetings where participants are often distracted or multitask. Research has shown that using video is one of the easiest ways to keep people engaged.

Drawing in virtual attendees through regular question asking (“Leah, could you share your thoughts on this?”) is especially important in remote meetings.

Ultimately, the most effective meeting strategies come to a crux at the very end when everyone is about to leave, and they wonder, “why the heck did I go to that meeting?”

Before the meeting adjourns, align on actions, owners, and timelines:

• Actions : What is going to get done? What are the key metrics? How does the assignment fit into the broader objective?
• Owners : Who is going to accomplish which action?
• Timelines : When is it due? What are the deadlines? Where should people report to with their final product?

If you forget this part, your entire meeting was in vain. People need crystal clear direction for what to do next.

Be sure also to discuss the general time frame of your next meeting.

Most importantly, thank everyone for coming and reminding them of their excellent work. 

Always end on a positive note!

Deal With Difficult People

Sometimes, you might encounter a difficult person (or people) in your meeting. These types of people are toxic and can alter the dynamics of any meeting—usually for the worse. Luckily, there’s an efficient way to deal with these types of people.

How to Deal With Difficult People At Work

Do you have a difficult boss? Colleague? Client? Learn how to transform your difficult relationship. I’ll show you my science-based approach to building a strong, productive relationship with even the most difficult people.

Meeting Mini-FAQ

The best meetings are highly organized ahead of time. Define a clear objective, create an agenda, and send both out with your calendar invites. Be sure only to invite relevant team members and keep the meeting time as brief as possible to retain engagement. Don’t forget to end every meeting with actions, owners, and timelines to get your team crystal clear on what needs to get done before the next meeting.

Conducting a meeting should always be done from a servant leadership mindset. Approach your team with kindness and create a culture of trust wherein everyone feels safe to speak and participate. Remain positive and inspirational while speaking with authority and focusing on the objectives. Stay true to your agenda to respect everyone’s time.

How to Run a Meeting Key Takeaways

If you’ve been nervous about running a meeting, remember that most of the work happens beforehand through organization and schedule planning. 

Don’t forget to: 

Most meetings are scattered and feel like a waste of time. Set yourself apart and establish yourself as a strong leader by putting in the work upfront.

Take the time and effort to prepare for a productive meeting. You will have a high-functioning team that meets your business goals and works in a culture of trust and collaboration.

Next thing you know, people will be looking forward to meetings rather than dreading them!

For further reading, check out this article: 17 Easy Ways to Make Your Meetings Better

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How to Create Effective Meeting Agendas for Productive Meetings [+4 Examples]

Truly effective meetings are actually born long before the meeting date, even before invites are sent out.

Estimate the cost of your meetings with a built-in calculator in Google Calendar, so you can right-size every meeting.

Want to run productive meetings? It may be tempting to think that all it takes is a few best practices.

Show up with the right attitude. Get everyone engaged. Keep an eye on the clock to ensure the meeting wraps up on time.

While those skills are certainly valuable once you're in the room , truly effective meetings are born long before the meeting date, even before invites are sent out.

It all starts with having a productive meeting agenda.

Great meetings happen because the meeting is necessary to accomplish an important goal. The purpose of the meeting must be well-defined before a leader can decide who needs to be in a meeting and how it will run. Meeting agendas accomplish exactly that, and much more, serving as a team preparation tool before the meeting, and a guide during it.

An effective meeting agenda clearly states meeting goals and discussion topics. It is written in a way that helps team members get on the same page, before, during, and after the meeting, providing all necessary information to set the team up for success.

Table of Contents

Tips & How-tos

• What is an agenda?
• How-to create your agenda + 5 tips
• Using the agenda to take notes
• Handling action items

Meeting agenda examples

• Manager 1:1
• Weekly Team Meeting
• All Hands Meeting
• Exec Weekly Meeting
• Explore 80+ other templates

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Definition: What is an agenda?

Created before a meeting begins, an agenda is a list of meeting activities and discussions that will be covered in your meeting. They are laid out in order, often as a list or set of bullet points.

An effective meeting agenda might be a very basic list of topics, but it can also be a more complex document. Exactly how much detail to include depends on the type of meeting you are having, and how organized you want to be.

A quick one-topic huddle may require no agenda at all, whereas an All-Hands meeting should be carefully planned to maximize the team's time together.

Agendas are notably different from meeting notes , which typically begin with the agenda, but are filled in with more information about what took place during the meeting—such as decisions and next steps.

For example, an agenda may include a question that needs to be answered, such as, "Discussion: Should we post-pone our team-wide retreat until 2022?"

Then, in your notes for the meeting, after the discussion you might jot down, "Decision to delay until 2022 due to the risks of having the entire team traveling during peak COVID-19."

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How to create your meeting agenda

Your first step in putting together a good meeting agenda is decide what kind of document to use. This sets up how easy it will be for meeting attendees to create, share, and reference your agenda.

Options for formatting your agenda include:

• Put the agenda in the calendar invite
• Use a document-in-folder notes app like Evernote or OneNote
• Use a calendar-based meeting notes software like Fellow

You will want to consider whether anyone else will need to contribute to the agenda or be able to comment on it. If so, emailing the agenda is going to add friction there, so going for a more shared approach is going to be useful.

For example, you may want to design a beautiful agenda PDF to print before a meeting. Using such a format will make it difficult or impossible for others to make suggestions to the agenda, or fill in their part with more detail if they are presenting at your meeting. That's why a shared document is often preferable.

But, regardless of what platform you choose for your agenda.

Below is an example of a team meeting agenda . After starting with an agenda template, the difference between a good meeting agenda and a great meeting agenda is in the details. {{start-having-better-meetings="/blog-inserts"}}

Read on to see best practices on how to make the best meeting agenda possible. 👇

Tip: Create your meeting agenda in ADVANCE

Early agenda creation has multiple benefits — from narrowing down meeting goals, which helps identify who needs to be in the room — to estimating a realistic meeting length for the discussion topics included. Outlining a meeting before sending out invites increases the likelihood that attendees will arrive prepared, since they’ll know what’s on the agenda.

Here are a few other key things to keep in mind for creating an effective meeting agenda:

Make the agenda in advance so you can share it. 

In most circumstances, it’s not productive to spring meeting goals and discussion topics on your attendees the day of the meeting.

That might work for weekly meetings with low-stakes decision making objectives. But, a wiser approach is to get into the habit of sharing well thought-out meeting agendas with room for attendees to suggest changes. Agendas are more powerful when shared, and when attendees can contribute to them.

Whether a key piece of information needs to be included to inform the meeting — or more time needs to be allocated to a topic which a team member feels is more complex than it appears — enabling attendee engagement early on forms a strong foundation and grants attendees ownership.

What’s more, building an agenda in advance gives the meeting leader plenty of time to organize thoughts and goals, and make sure that nothing important is missing from the agenda on meeting day.

Not sure where to start? Check out some of these sample meeting agenda templates for inspiration.  

Decide on a formal or informal agenda.

Those weekly low-stakes internal meetings probably require a different agenda style than, say, a meeting with a new potential partner. An informal meeting agenda may be short and simple, something like this:

An agenda like this is productive and efficient because it assumes quite a few things...

That everyone understands what to expect from “housekeeping.”

That Joe has been given enough notice that he will be making a 10-minute presentation.

And that attendees have been involved enough with the marketing campaign to identify strengths and weaknesses and brainstorm adjustments.

There may also already be internal discussion/brainstorming practices in place which ensure all voices are heard.

An informal agenda such as this is fine as long as attendees are familiar with the processes utilized at each stage of the meeting. Still, sharing it in advance so that Joe can communicate that he may need more time, or another team member can suggest more brainstorming allocation, is beneficial in ensuring the meeting will be productive.

A partnership meeting , of course, is a meeting that will likely require a more formal, detailed agenda. Sharing a well-written meeting agenda at the time of invitation gives everyone internally and externally the same opportunity to prepare and give feedback as needed.

Use action-oriented language in your agenda.

The best agenda topics are also more than just a procedural list. They explain the goal of that part of the meeting as an action. For example, "Brainstorm adjustments for the next campaign" is much stronger than simply saying, "Brainstorm."

Identify meeting goals, and state them clearly.

Why have a meeting at all?

Before diving into creating an effective meeting agenda, be sure to have a clear idea of what the meeting is trying to achieve. Making a clear goal statement (or a few) not only helps invitees anticipate what they’ll need to do to arrive prepared, but also help with guiding the creation of the agenda.

There is an easy way to help attendees arrive prepared. In the agenda, include any questions which need to be answered during the meeting.

Questions inspire thinking better than ambiguous statements that don’t describe the issue at hand. Instead of “Discuss marketing campaign,” for example, try “What went well with this campaign? What did not? Why?”

At this phase of agenda creation ask yourself, “How will we know when our goal has been achieved?” Visualize what a successful meeting outcome will look like. Be sure to make that desired outcome clear on the agenda.

Be sure to arrange presentations, discussion topics, etc. and their related goals in a way that makes sense. Brainstorming new marketing campaign ideas may yield quite a few unusable suggestions if the previous campaign’s results haven’t yet been shared.

One more word of advice on meeting goals : if they seem to be focused only on information sharing, seriously consider whether a meeting is necessary. If the information can be shared in a less resource-demanding format, that may be a better option.

Meetings require many people to find a shared time to come together during work hours, which can negatively affect productivity if the meeting purpose doesn’t justify the effort. Better meeting ideas are ones which require collaboration, such as customer meetings , post-mortems , onboarding , or one-on-ones .  

Enable preparation before meeting day.

Nothing’s worse than attendees showing up to a meeting unprepared to discuss the topics at hand. While clearly stating a goal can help reduce the chances of this happening, another option is to include expectations in the agenda when invitations are sent.

If, for example, attendees need to be familiar with certain documents before they can reasonably participate in a discussion topic, state as much and attach the documents to the agenda and meeting invite.

Even the informal agenda above noted the time allotted for each agenda item and who would be involved at each stage; that’s because this information is important for preparation.

When all attendees understand the expected pace and participation of the meeting, it reinforces the need to arrive prepared and helps keep the meeting on topic once in session.

With a well-constructed agenda shared in advance with all meeting invitees, everyone will be on the same page on the day of the meeting. The agenda’s job, however, is far from over: it will prove helpful in pacing, focusing, and recording the meeting’s progress.

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Use the agenda to take notes during the meeting.

As mentioned earlier, the second thing great meeting leaders do is create meeting notes by filling in the agenda. One way to do this is by having a note taker.

Maximize productivity with a note taker.

There are many ways to take meeting notes, but one of the most productive practices is designating one note taker who will share the notes with all attendees (and anyone else who needs to know what happened) after the meeting is over.

This may happen via a shared document, or even a whiteboard that gets photographed and shared at the end of the meeting. With meeting note platforms like Fellow , however, things are much easier than that, especially with a prepared agenda to guide the notes.

Follow the agenda and fill in notes along the way.

If agenda items have been properly arranged, it should be relatively easy to move down the agenda as the meeting progresses.

Allocated times and participants noted at each phase should also help keep the meeting on task, ensuring that each agenda item receives attention and (hopefully) resolution.

Another benefit of well-written agendas is the ability to use them to make the most of notetaking . Writing notes directly into meeting items has multiple benefits. It puts the meeting notes in context both for the note taker and anyone who will be reviewing the notes later, especially people who were not in attendance at the meeting.

Filling meeting notes in on the agenda also clears up which meeting goals have been met and which still require action. Assigning team members to action items and noting due dates in the meeting notes keeps critical information in one, easy-to-navigate place: the agenda everyone has access to.

With some modern productivity tools , access to the new, note-filled version of the agenda can be available immediately when the meeting ends, so that everyone is clear on next steps.

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Action Items: Note them too, and assign them.

Most of the work that goes into creating effective agendas and running great meetings is in the preparation, with some happening during the meeting. Before the meeting ends, however, there are a couple things you can do to make sure that the meeting has met its goals and that future ones do as well:

Answer questions.

Before adjourning, ask if anyone has any questions. Be prepared for anything from one individual’s lack of clarity on a small issue, to the whole group remaining confused about whether the goal of the meeting has realistically been achieved.

If time was allocated in the agenda for answering questions, there shouldn’t be pressure to rush through making sure everyone understands which desired outcomes were, and were not, met.  

Review the meeting.

Especially when working on building a better meeting culture , it’s not a bad idea at the end of a meeting to simply ask attendees:

How did this meeting go?

What when well? What didn’t?

What can be done better next time?

The feedback received from these questions can inform and shape better meetings in the future.

With collaborative preparation, a team ready to stay on-task, and thoughtful reflection, wasted time in meetings can become a thing of the past. With the help of strong meeting agendas, productivity goes up and disengagement drops.

Ready to create effective agendas and lead better meetings? Browse some meeting agenda templates and get started now!

Learn More: Want Your Meetings to Matter? Follow Up After

Effective meeting agenda examples

Below are more examples of good meeting agendas. Each is available to download as a Word doc, copy as a Google doc, or add to your free Fellow account. (Fellow is meeting management software .)

All of the above meeting agenda templates come from our library of 80+ templates for all sorts of types of meetings. Browse the full meeting agenda template library .

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Don't let unproductive meetings slow you down

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8 tips for how to run a team meeting that benefits everyone

1. Consider if you need to have a meeting at all

2. create a meeting agenda with your team’s input, 3. focus on collaboration, not reports, 4. protect everyone’s chance to speak, 5. share meeting recaps, 6. follow up on action items, 7. collect feedback from team members, 8. iterate and reiterate, level up your meeting skills with online business english tutors.

Listen to useful tips from Sylvia and Iris on how to create a study plan that’ll help you learn a language effectively

A staggering 24 billion hours are wasted in unproductive meetings every year. In today’s fast-paced work environment, knowing how to lead effectively makes the difference between a productive meeting and a time-waster.

Productive and purposeful meetings not only save precious time but also foster an environment where ideas flourish and goals are achieved. Learning how to run a team meeting will also help you develop your leadership skills and confidence to grow professionally . By following the tips below, you’ll lead team meetings that your coworkers look forward to attending.

We’ve all been there – sitting through a meeting and thinking, “This could have been an email.” It’s a common frustration in the workplace, where bad meetings often seem to be scheduled just for the sake of it.

That’s why the first step in learning how to run a team meeting is to ask yourself this important question: Is this meeting really necessary?

Before sending out those calendar invites, make sure that each meeting serves a purpose and brings value to everyone involved. Here’s a guide to help you figure that out.

Schedule a meeting if…

• You have a clear objective: Whether it’s brainstorming for a new project or finalizing a critical decision, the purpose of the meeting needs to be clear.
• You have an agenda: A meeting agenda acts as a roadmap for everyone involved. Without one, meeting participants may show up unprepared, go off-topic, or waste time.
• You know who to invite: Not everyone needs to be in a meeting. Be thoughtful about who to invite based on the topic and goal of the meeting.

Don’t schedule a meeting if…

• It’s just for sharing information: You can share data reports, straightforward updates, and other information via email or internal messaging platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
• It’s just for the sake of having a meeting: Avoid falling into the trap of scheduling recurring meetings without a specific purpose. Regular check-ins are valuable, but only if they serve a real need.

Remember, a well-planned meeting can be a powerful tool for collaboration and decision-making, but only when used wisely.

When team members contribute to the agenda, they feel more invested in the meeting’s outcome and are more likely to participate actively. This collaborative approach ensures that the meeting covers genuinely relevant and important topics for the whole team .

So, before finalizing your agenda, reach out to your team for their input. This could be as simple as a quick email asking for suggestions or a shared document where team members can add their ideas. The key is to make everyone feel heard and valued.

Once you’ve gathered input, it’s time to craft a solid meeting agenda. A well-structured agenda should clearly outline:

• The meeting’s purpose and objectives
• A detailed schedule, including start and end times
• Specific topics to be discussed in order of priority

Assigning roles will keep the meeting organized and efficient. Consider rotating roles to ensure fairness and involvement. Here are the most important roles for a team meeting:

• Meeting leader: This is usually the team leader, but it can vary depending on the meeting’s topic.
• Note taker: Rotate this task to share the responsibility.
• Facilitator or timekeeper: This person will make real-time judgment calls on managing discussions and keeping the meeting on track.

To encourage everyone to invest in the meeting, align your meeting agenda with your company’s mission and vision . This will reinforce the purpose behind each meeting and keep the team focused on the bigger picture.

Gone are the days when team meetings were primarily for sharing reports and status updates. Instead, the modern meeting room (virtual or physical) is becoming a hub for teamwork and strategic discussions.

Your team needs reports, statistics, and other information to make decisions. But you don’t have to schedule a meeting just to share these materials.

Instead, share relevant materials like studies, metrics, and other documents a few days before the meeting . Encourage your team to review these materials and come to the meeting prepared to share their conclusions, ideas, opinions, and questions.

When your team can analyze the information beforehand, they are more likely to bring valuable insights to the table. That way, you can use your meeting time effectively for brainstorming, problem-solving, and team building .

Ultimately, this approach fosters a culture of engagement and critical thinking. Meetings become a platform for collective intelligence rather than a one-way flow of information.

Creating a safe environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves – especially team members using a non-native language – is vital for fostering a culture of open communication and innovation.

When team members feel heard, they are more likely to contribute valuable ideas and feel a sense of belonging .

But often, meetings are dominated by a few voices, leaving others in the shadows. To counter this, it’s important to adopt strategies that encourage participation from all attendees.

One effective technique is the “pile-on meeting” technique, where after one person speaks, you encourage others to add their thoughts before moving on to a new topic .

This method ensures that multiple perspectives are heard on each point of discussion. Tell your team that taking risks and failing is encouraged, as long as we learn from it. Doing so can inspire quieter team members to participate more in both meetings and projects.

As a meeting leader, you are responsible for noticing who hasn’t spoken and inviting them to share their thoughts. Here are some phrases you can use to do this:

• I noticed we haven’t heard from [Name] yet. Do you have any thoughts on this?
• It’s important we consider all angles. [Name], do you have any concerns or ideas regarding this?
• I think [Name] had a point to make earlier. Would you like to expand on that?
• Does anyone have a different perspective or additional insights to add?
• Before we move on, does anyone else have something to add or any questions?

Encouraging team members to prepare their thoughts in advance can also help those who might need more time to formulate their ideas in a second language.

Discover more helpful phrases in English for business meetings in this comprehensive guide.

The effectiveness of a team meeting goes beyond the actual gathering. You also need to make sure that any main points and decisions are well-documented and shared with the entire team.

That’s why each meeting should have a designated note-taker. This person is responsible for recording the meeting minutes, which include the main ideas of the discussion, decisions made, and action items .

Alternatively, you can use technology like meeting recorders or AI transcription to streamline this process and ensure no critical detail is missed.

Once the meeting is over, you need to transform these raw notes into a coherent and actionable recap. This reorganization involves distilling the meeting notes to cover essential elements, such as:

• Key takeaways: This includes decisions made during the meeting and any changes that need to be implemented.
• Action items: Clearly define any tasks assigned to team members, complete with deadlines and specific goals.
• Parking lot: Keep a running list of ideas or tangential topics that were brought up but need to be addressed at another time. Tools like the 2×2 prioritization matrix from Mural can help you organize these ideas.

Plan for conversations to follow up on “parking lot” ideas so you can address every point raised in the meeting. This will help the team feel heard, valued, and motivated to keep going. As a bonus, you might discover an unexpected solution to an old problem, simply by listening to another person’s perspective!

A key practice in making meetings actionable is to end each session with concrete goal-setting and specific questions that clarify responsibilities and deadlines. That way, everyone leaves the meeting with a clear understanding of their next steps and timeline.

The “W.W.D.W.B.W.” (Who will do what by when?) framework is an excellent tool for setting clear expectations. It involves answering these critical questions for every action item:

• Who is responsible for executing the task?
• What exactly needs to be done?
• By when should the task be completed?

This technique will streamline task management while fostering a culture of accountability within your team. It will also prevent your team’s productivity from ending when the meeting does.

Here are some English phrases you can use to follow up on action items via email or in person:

• Just checking in on the progress of [action item]. How is it coming along?
• Could you provide an update on where we stand with [action item]? It would help us stay on track for our upcoming deadline.
• I’m reaching out to see if you have any questions or need further clarification regarding [action item]
• To ensure we’re on the same page, could you share the latest updates on [action item]?
• I wanted to follow up on [action item] due [date]. Do you need any help to meet the deadline?

Remember, a meeting without a follow-up is like a ship without a rudder – it might be afloat, but it’s not going anywhere.

Feedback is the best indicator of a meeting’s effectiveness. By consistently seeking it out, you can make the necessary iterations to improve the meeting process. It will also show team members that you value their opinions.

It’s important to remember to ask for feedback immediately after the end of the meeting , as details are fresh in everyone’s minds. This doesn’t require extensive surveys; simple questions like “How would you rate this meeting on a scale from 1 to 10?” can be incredibly insightful. Other questions like “Was agenda item X helpful?” or “Could we have shared some information in another way, such as a report shared asynchronously?” help pinpoint areas for improvement.

Consider asking for feedback on your own communication, especially if you’re using a non-native language. Do the same for your team as well: if you notice someone struggling with clear communication during the meeting, offer them one-on-one feedback (ideally face-to-face). These private conversations can help you and your team feel more confident in the next meeting.

After getting feedback from your team, you need to put it into action. An iterative process turns every team meeting into an opportunity for improvement, whether it’s refining the agenda or focusing your discussions.

Continuous improvement will also keep your meetings fresh and engaging to help maintain your team’s participation. Here are some tactics you can experiment with when iterating your meeting structure:

• Rotate the meeting leader: Each person can offer a fresh perspective and learn to develop their leadership skills.
• Do role-playing exercises: Team members can practice communicating with customers, finding solutions to complex problems, and working with different personalities.
• Incorporate short games: Quick activities like icebreakers or problem-solving games can break up the monotony of a regular meeting.
• Change up your meeting structure: Dedicate part of the meeting to a new activity, like inviting a guest speaker, watching a TED Talk, or having a team member do a skill-share presentation.

Don’t forget to regularly audit your meetings to see if they’re still necessary and effective . Ask yourself and your team questions like:

• Are the right people attending each meeting?
• What results are we achieving?
• Are we meeting our desired goals?
• Do we need to meet more or less frequently?
• Are these meetings too long or too short?

Sometimes, a meeting that seems essential to you might not hold the same value for your team, and vice versa. Remember, the decision to continue, change, or cancel a team meeting should be a group decision that reflects the collective needs and insights of the group.

Learning how to run a team meeting goes beyond just setting an agenda or managing your time. It’s about creating a space where ideas can flourish, goals are achieved, and every team member feels valued and heard. With the strategies we shared above, you can boost the productivity of your meetings and hone crucial leadership skills that will take your career to the next level. You can also use these team gatherings as a chance to improve your confidence in business meetings with other departments or customers.

Of course, communication is the key to an effective team meeting. But when English isn’t your first language, improving your communication skills is extra important for professional success.

In that case, you’ll benefit from some personalized coaching. With Preply’s online business English tutors , you can take 1-on-1 language lessons that cater to your specific needs and goals.

Whether you’re looking to improve your fluency, expand your business vocabulary, or simply gain more confidence in your language abilities, Preply’s tutors are here to help. Your private tutor will create a customized learning plan to help you progress quickly – ideal for absolute beginners who want to reach a professional working proficiency in English as soon as possible.

There are thousands of tutors to choose from, and you can easily filter by availability, price, and even country of origin if you want to learn a specific dialect or accent. Preply tutors are based in every time zone , so you’re sure to find someone who can work with your busy schedule.

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Naomi Boitel is a marketing specialist who has over 7 years experience of working in startups in London. Naomi is British and has previously relocated to Shanghai, London, and now lives in Barcelona. Naomi offers all the top tips for working professionals in relocating. She is also learning Spanish on Preply.

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14 Tips On How To Organize Effective Meetings

In today's fast-paced business world, it's more important than ever to make the most of your time. That's why unproductive meetings can be such a drag on productivity. Whether they're lagging because of lack of preparation, poor organization, extended meeting time, or unengaged meeting participants, unproductive meetings waste time and money.

Just like there are ample reasons why meetings kill productivity, there are also steps you can take to increase meeting productivity. Keep reading to find out some super tips on how to organize effective meetings and enjoy every moment of being busy.

What does a productive meeting look like?

In an ideal setup, a productive meeting is typically well-organized, with a clear agenda and objectives . The participants are engaged and focused, and they work together to find solutions to problems. There is mutual respect among the attendees, and everyone works collaboratively towards the common goal.

The meeting adjourns when all of the items on the agenda have been addressed, and there is a clear plan of action for moving forward. In short, a productive meeting is one in which everyone participates and leaves with a better understanding of the issue at hand.

How do you go about organizing an effective meeting?

As a working professional, you've had to sit through your fair share of meetings. And if you're like most people, you've probably left more than a few of those meetings thinking, "That could have been an email." In fact, a lot of workers see meetings as a huge time sink that interrupts their workflow and prevents them from getting actual work done.

The truth is, though, that meetings don't have to be a drag. With a little bit of advance planning, you can actually make meetings an effective and productive use of your team's time. Here are seven tips on accomplishing just that.

1. Define The Purpose Of The Meeting Ahead Of Time

One of the biggest reasons why meetings tend to be unproductive is because they lack a clear purpose. Before you schedule a meeting, ask yourself what the goal of the meeting is. Do you need to make a final decision on projects? Do you need to provide updates? Do you need to brainstorm ideas? Do you need to include a previous meeting recap? Once you know the purpose of the meeting, it will be easier to determine who needs to be in attendance.

2. Keep The Meeting Focus On One Topic

It's tempting to try and cram everything into one meeting but resist the urge! Trying to accomplish too many things in one sitting will only lead to confusion and frustration. Stick to one topic and save other topics for another meeting (or for an email).

3. Make Sure You Have A Meeting Agenda Ahead Of Time

An agenda is key for keeping meetings on track and ensuring that all the necessary topics are covered. If possible, circulate the meeting agenda ahead of time so that everyone knows what will be discussed and can come prepared with questions or comments.

4. Set An Acceptable Time Limit

Meetings tend to drag on forever when there's no set end time. So, before you start the meeting, decide how long it needs to be and then set a timer for that amount of time. Once the timer goes off, it's time to wrap up whether you're finished with the agenda or not!

5. Encourage Participation From Everyone In The Room

When people feel like their voices are being heard, they're more likely to be engaged in the meeting. So, make sure you encourage everyone in the room to participate by asking for their input and opinions on various topics.

6. Take Notes During The Meeting

It can be helpful to have someone take meeting notes during the meeting so that there is a record of what was discussed and what decisions were made. This is especially important if someone wasn't able to attend the meeting and needs to be briefed on what happened later on.

7. Follow Up With A Written Summary After The Meeting

After the meeting, follow up with an email summarizing what was discussed and what actions need to be taken by whom. This written summary will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows exactly what needs to be done going forward. It becomes that much easier if you have follow-up tasks noted down to get a brief idea when you need to recap in a hurry.

Some Innovative Tips to Organize Your Meetings Efficiently

Sure, there are the usual measures you can take to ensure a successful meeting by preparing the meeting's agenda ahead of time or appointing key decision-makers to keep the meeting on track. However, you can do more than just save everyone's time by bringing in some innovative change to your online and boardroom meets.

Here are a few tips to consider.

8. Give Your Meeting Space A Changeover

If you're in charge of organizing those meetings, you know how important it is to have a space that supports productive discussion and collaboration. But over time, even the best meeting space can start to feel stale.

If you're looking for ways to inject new life into your next meeting, consider giving your space a changeover. You don't need to go overboard - simply rearranging the furniture or adding some new artwork can make a big difference. And if you're really stuck for ideas, there are plenty of resources online that can help you get started.

With a little effort, you can transform your meeting space into a more effective and inspiring environment - one that will help your team get the most out of every meeting.

9. Put In An Absolutely Random Icebreaker

It's always a good idea to start meetings with an icebreaker . Not only does it help everyone get to know each other better, but it also helps to break the ice and get the meeting started on a positive note.

There are a variety of icebreakers that can be used, but one of the most effective is to have everyone go around and share something about themselves that they think others might not know. This can be something as simple as their favorite food or hobby, or something more meaningful like their biggest accomplishment or what motivates them.

Either way, it's a great way to get everyone involved and ensure that the meeting is effectively organized.

10. Consider Walking or Stand-up Meetings

Studies have shown that these types of meetings can help to increase productivity and improve communication. Walking or stand-up meetings also help to create a more informal atmosphere, which can encourage creativity and collaboration.

And, if you're worried about time management, walking or stand-up meetings can actually be shorter and more focused than traditional sit-down meetings.

So, if you're looking for a way to make your next meeting more effective, consider walking or stand-up meetings.

11. How About A Hybrid Meeting?

Hybrid meetings combine the best aspects of in-person and virtual meetings, making them more efficient and productive. In hybrid meetings, participants can join from anywhere in the world, meaning that more people can attend and provide input.

Additionally, hybrid meetings allow for greater flexibility in terms of scheduling and duration. As a result, they can be tailored to the needs of the participants and the objectives of the meeting.

12. Plan A Short Meeting

One way to ensure your meetings are organized and effective is to keep them short. Shorter meetings allow for less side-tracking and provide a more concise way to communicate. They also require less time to prepare for and attend, which can be a big plus for busy professionals. In addition, shorter meetings are usually more focused and can help to promote higher levels of productivity.

13. Food Is Always Welcome

A lot of times when people are in a meeting, they get a little bit tense. You want to be sure that you're able to kind of refresh the mood and ensure that everyone is still effectively organized. One way to do this is to add in refreshments.

This could be anything from coffee to tea to water and even snacks. It doesn't have to be anything big, but just something to help people relax and feel comfortable again. This can go a long way in ensuring that your meeting is still productive despite any tension that may have arisen.

14. Maybe an AI Meeting Assistant to Let You Focus On Your Priorities?

Meetings usually take up a fair amount of time, and it can be difficult to keep them on track. This is where an AI Meeting Assistant like Eric.ai can be helpful.

By taking minutes and keeping track of action items, the assistant can help to ensure that meetings are more effectively organized. In addition, Eric can provide follow-up after the meeting, sending out reminder emails or texts as needed.

As a result, an AI Meeting Assistant can help to ensure productive meetings that are less of a time-sink with a specific focus on your priorities.

Eric was designed to make your meetings quicker and better, from the start to the finish. You get to save time, earn general attendee satisfaction, and save on costs with every meeting. All you have to do is install the Eric.ai app for Microsoft Teams, invite Eric to your scheduled meeting, and let the magic of AI unfold live.

Final Thoughts on How to Organize Effective Meetings

Organizing an effective meeting doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, by following a few simple tips and some innovative tips, you can ensure that your meetings are productive, efficient, and well-attended.

With Eric, your meetings are made more effective for improved team performance. From comprehensive meeting recording and minutes taking to innovative collaboration while the meeting is live, Eric.ai offers benefits to chief executives, team members, and project managers. Eric gives you the freedom to focus on what you need to and improve the quality of your meetings.

Why not give Eric.ai a try? It’s FREE!

Download our free meeting mastery guide

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How to facilitate a meeting (practical tips and best practices) 

Meeting facilitation is a vital skill for anyone leading a group and hoping to get stuff done. When we facilitate a meeting, this means setting up a dedicated spaces in which to discuss, create, prioritize and decide together. Those spaces are different from our normal interactions. They are set aside from the rest of the flow of the day and have rituals for starting, ending and running them. We call them meetings.

Learning how to facilitate a meeting effectively and improve team interactions is a valuable skill for managers, leaders and facilitators alike. Read on to find out how you can improve how you plan and run your meetings!

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I know, from lived experience, that meetings can be pleasant experiences of learning and empowerment, where collective genius is unleashed, trust heightened, and good work gets done. Having meetings like that has been my privilege… for I also know that meetings can be awful, feel like a terrible waste of time, leave attendees with a headache, and even ruin relationships.  In this article, I will be presenting some ideas and practical tools anyone can use to improve your meeting facilitation. Changing the way a meeting is run may seem like a small step, but it is a step in the direction of changing the culture towards a more collaborative and proactive future!

What is meeting facilitation?

Meeting facilitation is the act of carefully designing and guiding a meeting process so that it is productive, engaging and easier for all team members to be involved.

Running a meeting with a facilitation mindset often means creating a more participatory process and using effective facilitation techniques to stay on time, be effective and achieve your meeting goals. If you’re having ineffective or unproductive meetings, this is a great prompt to introduce meeting facilitation to your organization.

Why is meeting facilitation important?

Badly run meetings can stifle discussion and leave participants drained and demotivated. At their worst, they can be a waste of time that actually create less clarity than before!

Meetings that are expertly facilitated are more likely to achieve their goals and create a safe space for groups to explore topics, get aligned and make progress. A meeting facilitator will also plan the session effectively, keep the meeting on time and set clear follow-up actions too. Simply put, a well facilitated meeting can position your team for success and transform a regular event into a something special.

How to make an effective meeting

I learned most of what I know about effective meetings from a decade-long (and ongoing) collaboration with the international Transition Movement , working with citizen-led groups to tackle the climate, natural resources, and social justice crises of our times. As you might imagine, that level of aspiration requires a lot of coordination, and a whole lot of meetings. In Transition we talk about using the head, hearts and hands approach , meaning every action should combine intellectual, emotional and practical components. Looking at meeting facilitation through this lens, I learnt that for a meeting to be effective we need to engage:

• The Head/mind: knowing why we are gathered, sharing an understanding of the purpose of the meeting and of its agenda.
• The Hands/activity: seeing the tangible effects of having moved something forward, e.g. ticking things off a checklist, having an action plan, and next steps. 
• The Heart/emotions: having our humanity acknowledged, feeling respected, safe, and valued, and ending the meeting with a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of closure and completion… as opposed to feeling confused and like more loose ends have been created!

In other words, three components of an effective meeting are:

• We know why we are here at the beginning;
• We move things forward during our time together;
• We feel satisfied with the meeting at the end (which will make us more likely to be glad to attend the next one, rather than approaching it with dread!)

By using this approach as a meeting facilitator, you can not only ensure all of your agenda items are covered, but that your participants are engaged too. You can see what a meeting agenda based on these principles looks like here . You can also explore additional meeting agenda templates in Word, PDF and SessionLab to get an idea of how such an agenda might be put together.

How to open a meeting effectively (and why)

An effective meeting generally starts by running activities that prepare the ground for the actual discussions. These opening tools are designed to

• Create a safe space;
• Frame the meeting with clarity and reiterate the purpose of the meeting;
• Support everyone’s full presence and participation.

In practice, this means doing at least two things: some form of ice-breaker or check-in, and sharing ground rules. This is a great time for the meeting facilitator to set the tone and gauge energy in the room too!

Checking in 

Having the opportunity of speaking up early in the meeting encourages people to speak up more later. To increase participation, ask everyone to share their answer to a check-in question at the very start. Furthermore, checking in encourages participants to leave their not-meeting-related worries and daily concerns aside for a while, and fully focus on the meeting. By checking in (and checking out at the end) we recognize that a meeting is a separate space from the rest of daily life and work. The learning organization Hyper Island has described a series of check-in questions you can use at different moments in your team’s development. 

Check-In Questions   #hyperisland   #team   This tool gives suggestions for how to do different kinds of check-ins. Checking-in is a simple way for a team to open a session or start a project. Groups go through different stages: when they start; during a project; and when a project ends. You can support the group by asking different questions at different times.

Set ground rules

Group agreements or ground rules are an expression of the collective agreement to behave in a certain way during the meeting . They help everyone in the room understand what to expect, and gauge their participation accordingly. Start a meeting with I DO ARRT agenda design, briefly sharing with everyone the intention for the meeting, the outcome you are seeking, starting and ending times, an overview of the agenda, roles, and responsibilities. 

IDOARRT Meeting Design   #hyperisland   #action   #kick-off   #opening   #remote-friendly   IDOARRT is a simple tool to support you to lead an effective meeting or group process by setting out clear purpose, structure and goals at the very beginning. It aims to enable all participants to understand every aspect of the meeting or process, which creates the security of a common ground to start from. The acronym stands for Intention, Desired Outcome, Agenda, Rules, Roles and Responsibilities and Time.

Share your agenda

A great way to start the meeting is by letting people know what’s on the agenda. Ideally, you’ll share a basic agenda ahead of time so participants can know what to expect and prepare accordingly. It’s always useful to remind people about the purpose of the meeting and make sure everyone is on the same page.

This opening section of the meeting should, in day-to-day work, last about 10 minutes. See how these activities fit into the flow of a one-hour meeting in this template for an Effective Meeting Agenda . 

How to use meeting roles

In facilitation, we distinguish between content and process. Put simply, content is the WHAT of the meeting: what are we discussing? What are the topics for today, what will we talk about? These are the items in your meeting agenda that you’ll often prepare ahead of time. The process is the meeting’s HOW: how do we relate to one another? How do we work together, what values does this express? How will we run this meeting, and what about the next? It can feel like meeting facilitation is taking care of the process but it’s arguably more appropriate to say that it takes care of the balance between those two. Leaving the content of your meeting up to one single individual would feel pretty crazy… yet there is an assumption that the process can be taken care of by a single person, whether you call that person a manager or facilitator.

We can share the job of taking care of the process, aka ‘facilitating’, by dividing the work up into a series of roles. It can be transformative for your meeting participants to take turns trying out these different roles, learning as we go how to work together to create a process that works for us. The most common process roles in a meeting are:

Time-keeping

Minute-taking.

Think of the moderator as someone who is directing traffic. This is the person who will give the floor to speakers, notice when hands are raised, and so on. Usually, this role is taken by the facilitator or the person responsible for the overall meeting process. 

This is the person assigned with taking notes from the meeting and sharing them afterward. It’s a good role to rotate and requires good listening skills and a knack for summarizing. Below you can find more tips on minute-taking. 

The time-keeper is responsible for making sure the meeting runs on time . When checking the agenda at the opening, the time-keeper should assign indicative slots of time for each item.

Besides these core components, you can add roles to suit your particular situation, such as:

• Energy-keeping (Transition Network calls this role “Keeper of the Heart”), a person who will pay special attention to the group’s energy level and suggest ideas to energize or ground the team;
• Gate-keeping : for busy situations where people come and go it can be useful to assign someone to welcome new people and orient them;
• Graphic harvesting , to create visuals that will effectively summarize and capture the meeting;
• Tech hosting , an essential role for online meetings;
• Any role useful to your particular group in your unique situation! 

Here you can find an activity card to help you co-assign roles during your next meeting:

Roles in a meeting   #meeting facilitation   #remote-friendly   #hybrid-friendly   #skills   Organize the day’s meeting by co-creating and assigning roles among participants.

If you’re facilitating a meeting in a hybrid setting, that is, with some people joining in and some offline, you will need some extra roles, and you can read more about those here.  

How to run effective meeting discussions

As Adam Bryant puts it in this New York Times article on effective meetings: “control the meeting, not the conversation”. Moderation of a discussion is all about being in service to the group, ensuring different voices are heard and progress is made. 

In most meetings, moderated discussions take up the bulk of your time. Participants will share updates, ask questions and generally get aligned. When facilitating a meeting, this is often where most of your attention will go as a facilitator – helping these conversation be productive, respectful and on track.

Interrupt, with grace

Do not be afraid to interrupt speakers: rather, check with yourself that you are doing this in service of what you feel is the best interest of the group. Know that you may be wrong, but that is where learning happens! 

If a speaker has gone on too long, remind them of your group agreements/ground rules, and of the time allocated to a topic. What exactly you will say and how is not only personal but also dependent on the culture you are working in. Having mentioned in the IDOARRT stage how you will interrupt and why can certainly help. Moderation is a tightrope walk between structure and flow, and you’ll get better at it with feedback and time. 

Include different voices

Take a moment to observe who is being talkative and who is quieter. Different people occupy space in the conversation in different ways, which is fine, but you might want to try a few cues to check whether people feel included and comfortable speaking up. If you can, pay attention to body language too – if someone shows visible discomfort, they may have something important to add. Many people, due to personality or because that is the cultural norm they were raised in, will not speak until space is explicitly made for them, so gently check by asking something like “ I am just wondering, before we move on, if there is also something on Margaret’s mind? ”. Make sure you are actually asking, and not demanding a response: participants in a meeting should feel at ease in speaking up but also in keeping silent! 

Including different voices is also an effective way to break up a conversation between two people that is becoming a “ping-pong” match in which your other team members don’t get a word in. Try checking with the group “ So we heard Albert and Barbara, I wonder if there is anyone else who’d like to add something on this subject?”

Active listening is also a great tool to use with your team during meeting discussions. Encourage your meeting participants to pay attention and practice the concepts of active listening (presence, deeper engagement, trying to understand, and more) even if they’re unable to directly contribute.

Refer to purpose and values

Conversations can get stuck into the fine points of agreeing on a strategy or way forward, and sometimes conflicts emerge as to how, exactly, we are going to get things done. Bringing the team back to the “why”, to your vision, purpose and values, might help get things unstuck. The recommendation to refer back to both the purpose of the meeting and your overall purpose as a team. Values and/or vision implies that you have already worked on them. If you haven’t, here is a canvas that can help you start that process.

Often, meeting facilitation is about ensuring your team don’t go too far off track without reason, and by pulling back to this shared anchor point, you can ensure success for all your meeting participants.

Team Purpose & Culture   #team   #hyperisland   #culture   #remote-friendly   This is an essential process designed to help teams define their purpose (why they exist) and their culture (how they work together to achieve that purpose). Defining these two things will help any team to be more focused and aligned. With support of tangible examples from other companies, the team members work as individuals and a group to codify the way they work together. The goal is a visual manifestation of both the purpose and culture that can be put up in the team’s work space.

Once you have a direction to refer to ,  it’s a good idea to have it present and visible in the room, e.g. in a poster or at the top of your shared minutes. In this method used at the Airbus Leadership University, the organization’s best interest is invited to attend the meeting, in the form of an empty chair, as a reminder of the team’s purpose.

Empty Chair   #empty chair   #empowerment   #practice   #purpose and meaning   A simple practice to listen in to an organization’s purpose consists of allocating an empty chair at any meeting to represent the organization and its evolutionary purpose. Anybody participating in the meeting can, at any time, change seats, to listen to and become the voice of the organization.

Decide how to decide (and stick to it)

A common source of misunderstandings in meetings revolves around decision-making. Has a decision been made, or are we still brainstorming and discussing it? Who has the authority to decide? Clarify how decisions will be made and who will make them, to avoid this pitfall. Where someone sits in the decision-making process will influence their level of engagement with the meeting. Build a shared vocabulary around decisions with your team. “ We are going to run a consultation today, checking your ideas before taking this back to the leadership meeting ”. “ Today we are looking for feedback on how this decision lands with you, it’s taken already but we can modify it in the next quarter ”. 

In all cases, the facilitator should make it clear to the group when a decision is being made and clearly delineate who is the ultimate decision maker.

Model great teamwork with your timekeeper

Nobody can do it all alone and you should not feel like all the work is upon your shoulders. Lean onto your time-keeper for support and share responsibility over those on-the-spot decisions. Discussions that are not urgent can be parked for a later meeting. Transparently, organizing while the meeting is running shows good communication, teamwork, and honesty. “ Looks like we are running a bit late on this one, Petra what do you say? Should we allocate more time or move on?” 

Tips for keeping a meeting on time

Having a formal role for time-keeping relieves a lot of stress from the leader and the group when facilitating a meeting. Rather than having multiple people worrying about timing, that task is formally taken on by a person. The time-keeper doesn’t have to be concerned about whether it’s ok or not to speak up to remind everyone of what still needs to be covered and how much time is left: that is exactly their role. Time-keeping can be stressful, so here are some tips to make sure time stays on your side:

Assign slots of time to agenda items

During the opening phase, establish more or less how much time should be spent on each agenda item and communicate this to the moderator and the team. These should be indicative timings, as they will change, but they can give everyone a sense of which items should take longer, and which ones should take less time. You can do this on the spot, or upon setting the agenda with the team lead. 

Find your style

Timekeeping varies vastly from person to person and from culture to culture. Seek the balance between flexibility and rigor that works for you. My teacher and mentor Sophy Banks once shared that while facilitating she is keeping in her mind the idea that “ this is the perfect amount of time for this group” . Feedback at the end of the meeting will help you gauge how to time-keep in the way that feels the best for this specific team. Take the feedback, iterate, and adapt.

Rotate roles

In 2013, I co-founded a monthly farmers’ market with my neighbors and a handful of local growers. Deciding how it would work, and getting all the paperwork done, took quite a number of meetings, at least for the first few months. Although I took on the main facilitating role because of my background, we decided to rotate the roles of time-keeping, minute-taking and welcoming new participants (we called this “door-keeping”) among the rest of the group, once a month. I remember with particular delight the day that a big, talkative fellow we’ll call Guido said he would take on the time-keeping role for the next month. In all previous meetings, Guido had shown a tendency for lengthy speeches that sent our meetings in overtime. When he offered to time-keep, barely concealed groans were heard. A few people glanced over at me with imploring eyes. Our agreement was to rotate roles , so I decided, despite my own misgivings, to give it a shot. To everyone’s surprise, Guido was a great time-keeper! Invested in this new role, he kept us on track with kindness, yet strictly. And after a month in the position of time-keeper, he never overstepped the time assigned to a topic again! 

Breaks are your best friends

Coordinate with the rest of the team to make sure breaks are included in the agenda, and respected. Aim for a 10-15 min break every 90 minutes. It can feel like a “waste of time” to dedicate slots to checking in, assigning roles, feedback and breaks. In my experience though, it is time well invested: discussions and decisions become faster, misunderstandings and confusion decrease, and you can even decide to have less meetings as a consequence!

How to write effective meeting minutes 

A great power (and great responsibility) lies with the person who is taking notes from the meeting. When you are responsible for taking minutes, you should keep in mind the two main reasons we do this. The first is to include team members who were not present , so they can learn what was discussed and decided in their absence. The second is having a “single source of truth” to refer back to for decisions and action points. 

With these aims in mind, here are 4 tips for effective minute-taking:

• Keep it brief. Synthesis and concision are what you should aim for;
• Put all minutes for the same team or project in the same place;
• List meetings in reverse chronological order: the latest meeting goes to the top of the page;
• Write decisions and action points at the top of the page, and highlight them somehow. Do this despite the fact that they are likely to be the last thing discussed at the meeting. This is the part everyone should be able to easily access and read. 

What to remember when closing your meeting

A meeting is a ritualized space in which certain rules and behaviors apply. It has a beginning (the check-in) and an end. Like opening, closing a meeting takes some time, so you should bring discussions to an end, with the time-keeper’s help, about 10 minutes before the established end time. The importance of ending on time cannot be overstated and as meeting facilitator, it’s your job to get this right. It is a sign of respect for everyone’s time and commitments. If you want to continue chatting after the time is over, that’s great, but remember that it’s time outside the meeting. The small clique that hangs around for coffee is a wonderful place to brainstorm, share experiences, and ideate something new… but avoid taking decisions there, or you will have trouble to face next time! The closing phase of the meeting is used to:

• Recap action points and next steps (content);
• Collect feedback on the meeting itself (process).

You can ask the person who is taking minutes to take over for a recap of action points; check that there is a general agreement on what decisions have been taken and who will be taking ownership over those decisions, tasks, or next steps. If applicable, remind everyone of when the next meeting is , or how/when it will be set (some teams prefer to do this at the beginning, which is also fine). Finally, invite the team to shift their attention away from the content and toward the meeting itself. How did it go? What worked well, and what could be improved? This is a small but transformative step to having more successful meetings. Using information collected in this meeting closing round, you can introduce changes next time, designing the meeting structure to fit this particular group, at this particular time. 

Meeting closing round (+ – !)   #feedback   #closing activity   #remote-friendly   #hybrid-friendly   #meeting facilitation   Continuously improve your organization’s meetings with this simple round of closing feedback: what did you enjoy most? What could have been better? Any other ideas on our meetings?

You will notice that if something in a meeting was bothering you (e.g. it being too long before a break), it was probably bothering someone else as well. This can shift the team’s approach towards the problem, as we all look for solutions for how to improve our meetings, together. Most often, the changes introduced are small and incremental, yet you might be surprised by how effective they can be. When our marketing team here at SessionLab grew with two new members (me included!), having a feedback closing round led to changing the timings of weekly stand-up. What was working well for the previous iteration of this team no longer worked: we were consistently going overtime and yet carrying some frustration over things that did not get discussed. In response to listening to one another’s feedback, we added 15 minutes to our weekly stand-up and tweaked the flow of the agenda to fit the new team’s needs. A few months in, we are consistently happy with the structure, having time for both quick updates and deeper insights. 

Who can facilitate a meeting?

Anybody working with other people to get something done should be able to lead and facilitate a meeting . The skills required are basic organizational and communication abilities; while we all may approach this task differently, anyone with a “good heart and a good mind”, to use a favorite expression from facilitator Harrison Owen, can do it. Managers are expected to run meetings, and so are the chairpersons of any organization, big or small. Despite this, and surprisingly enough, the skills needed to run an effective meeting are rarely taught, and in short supply.

Meetings can be great or lousy. There’s a lot a meeting facilitator needs to pay attention to and keep track of. Sometimes this depends on uncontrollable factors (like, say, a bad internet connection in an online meetup), but there is a lot we can do to create more effective meetings, by design. By providing a basic structure to your meetings, you will be building a safer psychological space for everyone to contribute. If the task feels daunting at first, perhaps because you’ll be changing established norms (“We’ve always done it this way!”), find an ally or two: other people who will be willing to support you in innovating. Here is a framework you can refer to when considering how to choose the right person to facilitate the right meeting, and figure out if that is you!

• Green – Easy tasks, such as a day-to-day team meeting, with no major decisions to take, such as a department standup. Use this space to try new things . Frame it as an experiment, and ask for feedback at the end. One thing you might want to try is dividing facilitation tasks among the team (see below). Sharing the responsibility of facilitating with others enables everyone to learn new skills and can even transform the way people show up in meetings as more collaborative participants.
• Yellow – More important meetings, such as setting a quarterly strategy or planning ahead, with some element of unpredictability and novelty. This is where it makes the most sense for the team lead or manager to facilitate.
• Red – Complex situations with multiple stakeholders who perhaps do not know one another or have conflicting interests. Hire an external facilitator and learn from how they do it! 

When not to facilitate a meeting

If you are very invested in a certain topic, it can get very hard to keep your attention focused on the process. If possible, aim not to facilitate meetings in which you will be the main speaker and/or in which you care deeply about the exact outcome of the decision. You may have considered the idea of having an external facilitator support your group. This requires extra resources, and should definitely be an option on the table if you are facing a complicated or complex situation, such as a merger, a process that requires stakeholder engagement, and so on. Here you can find a handy checklist from the book Diverging conversations through facilitation , to help you decide if you need external support.

As you can deduce from the checklist, day-to-day, ordinary team meetings should not require external help. Usually, it is the manager or team lead who picks up the task of facilitating meetings. That’s a good starting point, although I will argue below when discussing roles, that teamwork gets better and better if you can rotate facilitation roles among the group. 

Besides meetings, there are numerous other ways of getting things done. Facilitated or not, a meeting that could have been an email (or a phone call, or a Slack thread…) will certainly not feel like the best use of everyone’s time. Read a bit more about what to think of before even calling that meeting, in this piece on team meeting planning.  

If we change the way we do our meetings… then what? 

To sum it all up, our key recommendations for facilitating effective meetings are:

• Start with a check-in;
• Share the meeting intention and structure, preferably ahead of time (I DO ARRT);
• Divide facilitation tasks among your team by assigning roles;
• Introduce a feedback round and change the structure based on feedback;
• Always end on time.

As you save energy and resources, you might find yourself with more time and space to dedicate to collaborating on more complicated tasks, and in need to level up your game with more facilitation methods, e.g. for ideation or prioritizing ideas. Luckily, SessionLab’s library can help , or you might want to delve deeper into facilitation Skills in this article . 

I began to be interested in facilitation because endless meetings with no clear agenda gave me headaches (I’ve since heard that for other people it’s a stomach ache or a clenched chest… in any case, not a pleasant feeling).

I kept going, eventually dedicating my whole career to facilitation, once I realized how many teams and organizations are doing wonderful things in the world, and being stuck and mired, or failing altogether, often due to an inability to work with other humans.

Facilitating an effective meeting is actually quite simple, requiring just a few structural changes and a bit of courage to introduce them. At the same time, it’s a great leap towards effective, engaging collaboration. I’d like to see more of that in the world, so we can get good work done and build solid bridges for our ideas, and foundations for our relationships, one meeting at a time!

Ready to try out an agenda for more effective meetings? Check out this ready-made template , and leave your experiences in the comments!

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Meetings shouldn't be boring. Here are 9 best practices to turn inefficient meetings into productive work sessions.

We all know the feeling of scrambling to get ready before a meeting begins – and it’s not a good one! In order to increase productivity and efficiency, you’ve got to put in the work before you walk into (or sign into) that meeting room. 

How can you organize more productive meetings and ensure that no meeting gets booked without a purpose? We’ve compiled 9 easy steps to help you organize an efficient and successful discussion. 

Ask these 3 questions before booking the meeting

How to organize a productive meeting in 9 easy steps, free productive meeting agenda templates.

Let’s take a closer look at these preliminary meeting questions below:

1 Do you really need a meeting?

You’re already super busy, so why add another meeting to the equation unless it is absolutely necessary? First, you should think about if there is another way that you can accomplish your goal without organizing a meeting. It is better to not host a meeting if another method of communication will get the job done instead. Think about if this issue is sensitive and will be better handled as a one-on-one meeting before calling other people to join. It’s also best not to have a meeting if you don’t have the proper time to prepare! You will be so much more productive once your meeting agenda is outlined properly.  

Show up prepared.

Save everyone’s time by coming to the meeting with a collaborative meeting agenda that includes talking points and action items using a tool like Fellow.

2 Who needs to attend?

An article by the Harvard Business Review outlines the key considerations for choosing the attendees of a meeting : 

“Consider who can help you accomplish your goal and who will be affected by the meeting’s outcome. Identify key decision makers, people who are knowledgeable about (or have a stake in) the topic at hand, those who need to be informed in order to do their jobs, and anyone who will be required to implement decisions made.” 

3 How much time do you need?

Is this a quick standup meeting or is this going to require more time dedicated towards achieving the meeting goal? Consider planning your meetings with even more time than you think you need to ensure that the meeting is not being cut short. Be strict on the time you set aside, respecting that everyone is busy and that time is valuable. 

Now that you’ve answered the 3 preliminary questions to answer before a meeting and have identified that you require one, you can follow these 9 steps to feel prepared, focused and ready to engage with your team. 

1 State the meeting purpose

It’s important that everyone knows why they have been called to attend your meeting. Think about which type of meeting will best help you to achieve the central goal. Whether this is a status update, decision-making, problem-solving, team building , idea sharing or even an innovation meeting, it is essential that the purpose of the meeting is crystal clear. After your objective is established, you can really begin the planning process to organize a successful meeting. 

2 Invite the right people 

Make sure that you consider who should be invited to the meeting. For an effective meeting, invite those who are able to give valuable insights and those who are able to make decisions. Where in brainstorming meetings or team-building meetings it is an asset to have a larger group attend a session, consider keeping a problem-solving meeting or decision-making meeting for a smaller group. Remember to use the purpose of your meeting as a guideline for who should be present. Be certain not to invite anyone who is not completely necessary to the meeting. Schedules are hectic and each minute of our workday is valuable!

3 Develop a preliminary agenda 

The next important step for planning a productive meeting is to develop an agenda which will create an organized sequence for the meeting. Using a meeting agenda app like Fellow will allow you and your team to collaborate on meeting agendas, assign action items, and stay on track. 

Using a collaborative agenda will help your team members contribute to the conversation and bring forwards any important points they feel would add value to the meeting. A meeting agenda app will also allow you to decide how much time to allocate to each agenda item and gain an idea of how much time this meeting will require. Check out all of our meeting agenda templates to get some extra inspiration! 

4 Encourage attendees to prepare in advance 

It’s a good idea to send out any materials to the attendees of your meeting a few days in advance so they can prepare to have a productive conversation. If you use a meeting productivity tool like Fellow , you can do this by attaching the files in your meeting agenda.

Make sure your team knows that your expectation is for them to be familiar with these materials so that they can be discussed during the meeting. Another great way for your attendees to be prepared for a meeting in advance is to add any questions they may have to the meeting agenda or to make any suggestions to modify it. 

5 Assign roles to participants 

Assigning roles to participants promotes an effective meeting because each person has a specific focus and key contribution to make. A recent article by the Harvard Business Review, provides a great description of key meeting roles :

“A facilitator guides the discussion, making sure all sides of the issue are raised (this is a good job for someone who is developing leadership skills and practicing neutrality). A scribe captures key ideas and decisions and distributes notes (this gives shy people a way to participate.) A timekeeper helps move the discussion along efficiently. A contributor keeps the discussion lively and on track. An expert shares knowledge on particular issues. One advantage: You can ask an expert to attend just part of the meeting, keeping their contribution focused.” 

6 Start the meeting on time

Set the precedent with your team that your meetings start right on time, whether or not people have signed in or showed up yet. It’s already a huge challenge to organize a meeting that everyone can attend because of crazy schedules and a mere lack of time. If the participants have all accepted your invite, assume that they are going to be there on time, and ready to participate. 

It may be beneficial to book more time than you think you need for your meeting. This will give you some wiggle room for any questions, comments, tech difficulties, or anything else that comes up. If you don’t end up using all of the time you’ve set aside, it is highly unlikely anyone will complain about the meeting ending early!

7 Use the parking lot technique to stay on track 

The parking lot technique is great for keeping on track and on time during your meetings. Let your participants know ahead of time if you plan on using this technique so that everyone is aware. 

Start by explaining to your team members that you only have a set amount of time for the meeting so you will be sticking to the meeting agenda and each agenda item very literally. Avoid deviations from the meeting agenda items by asking participants to write their talking points at the bottom of the agenda (the “parking lot”) instead of interrupting others. You can use a collaborative meeting app like Fellow as your parking lot.

The ideas captured in the parking lot will be followed up with after the meeting or at a later date. Acknowledging participants ideas or concerns is important, as is keeping your meeting on its course.

8 Keep track of meeting notes and next steps 

As we suggested earlier, assigning roles to the participants of your meeting is key. That way, you know that someone is being held accountable to produce meeting notes that cover all of the important discussion and decisions that have been made over the course of the meeting. 

Using a meeting notes application like Fellow allows you to write notes and cross out discussion points as the meeting evolves. You can use the private notes section to record your thoughts and share meeting notes easily with all collaborators.

9 Send a meeting recap or follow up email

The last step in organizing a productive meeting is to send a recap or follow-up email with all of the participants to share information from the meeting. This is going to reinforce the importance and main discussion points of the meeting. It is also going to drive outcome-oriented results by reminding your team of their responsibilities so they can hold themselves and their colleagues accountable. 

How to level-up your meeting productivity ⚡️

In order to plan a productive meeting, it is important that you organize yourself and determine if you really need this meeting, who should attend, and how much time you need to make it successful. Refer back to these 9 steps when you are planning a meeting so that you can ensure that you are signing in or walking into your meeting feeling ready to drive productivity and fully engage your team. 

Finally, consider using a meeting agenda app like Fellow to keep you organized and to save your valuable time by tracking all your meeting notes and action items in one place . 

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How to manage meetings like an expert facilitator

A skilled meeting facilitator can get a group to discuss, debate, and, above all,  decide  a lot of stuff in not-a-lot of time. Trouble is, most teams don’t have dedicated program managers or agile coaches to step in and fill that role. So as the modern workplace becomes ever-more collaborative, it’s increasingly important for all team members to know how to run effective meetings .

I’ve been facilitating meetings for years, and I’ve had to grabble with quite a few facilitation questions. What if the pace is too fast, or too slow? Is the agenda pitched at the right level? How will the vibe in the room change if I “double-click” on an uncomfortable truth that surfaces? Will I be able to get the inevitable strong personality in the room to button up and listen to their peers? Sheesh. So many x-factors to keep track of!

The good news is that meeting facilitation is simply a skill you have to practice. To help build your chops and conquer your fears, here are some pointers and pro tips that will help you manage your next meeting with confidence.

Bookmark this post so you can review it quickly the next time you’re about to facilitate a meeting.

1. Understand your role as meeting facilitator

Hint: It’s not about you

Me, I’m a classic “talker”. So standing in front of a group to facilitate a meeting isn’t much of a stretch. (In fact, when I was learning how to manage meetings, the hardest part was getting myself to shut up so the rest of the group could speak.)

Being an effective meeting facilitator while simultaneously being a meeting participant is near impossible – you can’t be emcee and performer at the same time. Embrace the facilitator’s role of managing time, encouraging participation, and asking juicy questions. Let the other people in the group be the stars of the show.

2. Create an interactive agenda

Structure your agenda such that there are opportunities for different people to lead parts of the discussion. This lets you sink into the background, observe the group, and focus on driving the group toward that outcome or decision.

As meeting facilitator, it’s a best practice to send a meeting agenda out to all participants before the meeting so they can come prepared. Many folks here at Atlassian will simply pop the agenda into the meeting’s calendar invite.

3. Establish your meeting’s purpose

Every meeting you facilitate needs to have a clear endpoint: an objective to achieve, or a decision to make. Make sure your agenda covers this so participants know why they’re there, and (importantly) what it would take to finish the meeting early.

It’s worth reiterating the objective at the start of the meeting, too. Heck, you could even write it on the whiteboard to serve as guardrails for the discussion – especially if you’re likely to have detractors in the room. If the conversation heads down a rabbit hole or veers off-course, you can get the group back on track by reminding them of the meeting’s purpose.

4. Close your laptop and open your ears

People are far more engaged in discussions when they’re not firing off an email or checking Facebook. So take a hardline approach and ask for all laptops, tablets, and phones to be turned off. The only exception is the meeting’s scribe, who gets a pass to use their device for taking meeting minutes . Don’t start the meeting until everyone is tuned in and ready to contribute.

A laptops-closed/phones-off policy is critical for sessions that revolve around active listening and flat-out, transparent sharing. Can you imagine someone working up the courage to share a dissenting opinion while their teammates pecked away on email? Not so much. For team  retrospectives  and similar  types of meetings , it’s best if the facilitator takes notes so all participants are fully engaged in the discussion.

If someone insists they need to be working on something else during the meeting, then give them permission to leave the room and go do it. They’ll have an easier time of it and produce better work without the distraction of people talking around them anyway.

5. Make space for everyone to contribute

Sometimes there’s a “celebrity” in the room: a strong personality with strong opinions who is highly respected by other people in the group. They can dominate the discussion (usually without intending to), or even disrupt it by advancing their own agenda.

Give them a pen, and ask them to take charge of capturing ideas on the whiteboard. Not only does this intrinsically task them with listening (i.e., creating space for others to speak), you also avoid the scenario where they sit in the back of the room trashing ideas that diverge from their own. No hecklers, please.

If they’re a strong detractor or feel particularly strongly about the session, you’ll be glad you shared the agenda and purpose in advance and gathered their input before the meeting. Help them walk in ready to make a constructive contribution.

6. Facilitate conversation through questions

Many meetings are essentially problem-solving workshops ( 5 Whys , Experience Canvas , Premortem , Empathy Mapping … If you’ve ever checked out the Atlassian Team Playbook , these are probably familiar!). As the meeting facilitator, it’s not your job to have all the answers. It  is  your job, however, to lead the group to answers. That means posing the right questions at the right time. When done well, pointed questions will challenge assumptions that may be preventing the group from getting to that “ah-ha!” moment.

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Even if you think you have The Answer™, resist the temptation to offer it up. Instead, ask leading questions that guide the group to that answer (it’s more meaningful if they arrive at that conclusion themselves). Here are a few of my favorites that you can customise:

• Can you expand on that point?
• Is this conversation moving us in the direction we want?
• Your last point intrigues me, but it feels counterintuitive – in what context could you see that applying?
• How would you summarise that?
• What would that look like?
• How does that make you feel?
• How would you measure success in that instance?

Of course, asking the right questions requires you to bust out your active listening skills. Give the group space to burn through the ideas that come quickly, and pay attention to what they’re saying so you know which questions can get them to think deeper. But generally stay out of the discussion until it stalls out or starts going in circles.

7. Read the room

Tune into the energy of the room and look for visual cues like body language. Are people fidgeting in frustration? Do looks of discontent or disagreement abound? These are signs you need to intervene. It’s ok to gauge sentiment in the room by simply asking people straight-up: Is this resonating? Do we feel comfortable with the progress we’re making?

Bringing focus to the group’s emotional state helps you understand whether they’re engaged or disconnected. And if the group is disconnected, it’s time for you to jump in and lead them down an alternate path.

Pay especially close attention in meetings that tend to be highly emotional like team health checks , goal-setting workshops , and root-cause analysis sessions

Getting your energetic radar calibrated will take time, and you’ll get it wrong once or twice. Being mindful and observant are the first steps.

8. Create a “parking lot” for good ideas that distract

If an idea pops up that is valuable, but off-point, offer to create a “parking lot” and jot it down (usually on the whiteboard or in the meeting notes) so you can come back to it later. Because right now is all about nailing your objective for this meeting.

Knowing their thoughts aren’t lost forever to the aether helps people return their focus to the outcome you’re striving for.

9. Know your audience

If you’re facilitating a problem-solving meeting or a  retrospective , be on high alert for people who need to be drawn into the discussion. Consider the personality types amongst your attendees, and try to get everyone to contribute to the discussion evenly (more or less). The quiet people in the group might not be shy, per se. In fact, they might have a lot to say, if given the opportunity. It’s your job as the facilitator to carve out space for them to speak.

A veteran facilitator might even observe people as they enter the room, mentally noting who they sit next to or who they avoid. It’s ok to use your judgment and re-arrange chairs (or who sits where) if that’ll help bring out the best in everyone.

Also, understand who has the final say on whatever decisions you’re making, and use them as a tie-breaker if the group can’t reach a consensus. That person can also come in handy when deciding who owns follow-up items.

8. Get moving to keep the energy up

Stand up, congregate around the whiteboard, and bring some dynamic energy to the room. This isn’t the UN General Assembly, after all. (Unless you actually work at the UN. In which case, good on ya.)

One dead-simple facilitation hack I like is having people write their thoughts on sticky notes, then walk up to the front of the room and post them a whiteboard or butcher’s paper. Once everyone is done posting up ideas, take turns coming up front to present those ideas to the group. Works great in problem-solving or brainstorming-flavored meetings like mindmapping  and  premortems .

Incidentally, when paired with coffee, a whiteboard is easily the most innovative tool in the knowledge worker’s tool kit. Seriously!

Running meetings and workshops will be clunky at first, and you’ll make some mistakes. That’s ok! You don’t have to be an ace facilitator to save your team weeks’ worth of time spinning their wheels.

Your skills will improve with practice. So you know what’s next, right? Get out there and start practicing! Browse the brainstorming and problem-solving meeting ideas in the Atlassian Team Playbook – our free, no-BS guide to working better together – and schedule a session with your team.

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How to build your critical thinking skills in 7 steps (with examples)

Critical thinking is, well, critical. By building these skills, you improve your ability to analyze information and come to the best decision possible. In this article, we cover the basics of critical thinking, as well as the seven steps you can use to implement the full critical thinking process. 

Critical thinking comes from asking the right questions to come to the best conclusion possible. Strong critical thinkers analyze information from a variety of viewpoints in order to identify the best course of action.

Don’t worry if you don’t think you have strong critical thinking abilities. In this article, we’ll help you build a foundation for critical thinking so you can absorb, analyze, and make informed decisions. 

What is critical thinking? 

Critical thinking is the ability to collect and analyze information to come to a conclusion. Being able to think critically is important in virtually every industry and applicable across a wide range of positions. That’s because critical thinking isn’t subject-specific—rather, it’s your ability to parse through information, data, statistics, and other details in order to identify a satisfactory solution. 

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Top 8 critical thinking skills

Like most soft skills, critical thinking isn’t something you can take a class to learn. Rather, this skill consists of a variety of interpersonal and analytical skills. Developing critical thinking is more about learning to embrace open-mindedness and bringing analytical thinking to your problem framing process. 

In no particular order, the eight most important critical thinking skills are:

Analytical thinking: Part of critical thinking is evaluating data from multiple sources in order to come to the best conclusions. Analytical thinking allows people to reject bias and strive to gather and consume information to come to the best conclusion. 

Open-mindedness: This critical thinking skill helps you analyze and process information to come to an unbiased conclusion. Part of the critical thinking process is letting your personal biases go and coming to a conclusion based on all of the information. 

Problem solving : Because critical thinking emphasizes coming to the best conclusion based on all of the available information, it’s a key part of problem solving. When used correctly, critical thinking helps you solve any problem—from a workplace challenge to difficulties in everyday life. 

Self-regulation: Self-regulation refers to the ability to regulate your thoughts and set aside any personal biases to come to the best conclusion. In order to be an effective critical thinker, you need to question the information you have and the decisions you favor—only then can you come to the best conclusion. 

Observation: Observation skills help critical thinkers look for things beyond face value. To be a critical thinker you need to embrace multiple points of view, and you can use observation skills to identify potential problems.

Interpretation: Not all data is made equal—and critical thinkers know this. In addition to gathering information, it’s important to evaluate which information is important and relevant to your situation. That way, you can draw the best conclusions from the data you’ve collected. 

Evaluation: When you attempt to answer a hard question, there is rarely an obvious answer. Even though critical thinking emphasizes putting your biases aside, you need to be able to confidently make a decision based on the data you have available. 

Communication: Once a decision has been made, you also need to share this decision with other stakeholders. Effective workplace communication includes presenting evidence and supporting your conclusion—especially if there are a variety of different possible solutions. 

7 steps to critical thinking

Critical thinking is a skill that you can build by following these seven steps. The seven steps to critical thinking help you ensure you’re approaching a problem from the right angle, considering every alternative, and coming to an unbiased conclusion.

 First things first: When to use the 7 step critical thinking process

There’s a lot that goes into the full critical thinking process, and not every decision needs to be this thought out. Sometimes, it’s enough to put aside bias and approach a process logically. In other, more complex cases, the best way to identify the ideal outcome is to go through the entire critical thinking process. 

The seven-step critical thinking process is useful for complex decisions in areas you are less familiar with. Alternatively, the seven critical thinking steps can help you look at a problem you’re familiar with from a different angle, without any bias. 

If you need to make a less complex decision, consider another problem solving strategy instead. Decision matrices are a great way to identify the best option between different choices. Check out our article on 7 steps to creating a decision matrix .

1. Identify the problem

Before you put those critical thinking skills to work, you first need to identify the problem you’re solving. This step includes taking a look at the problem from a few different perspectives and asking questions like: 

What’s happening? 

Why is this happening? 

What assumptions am I making? 

At first glance, how do I think we can solve this problem? 

A big part of developing your critical thinking skills is learning how to come to unbiased conclusions. In order to do that, you first need to acknowledge the biases that you currently have. Does someone on your team think they know the answer? Are you making assumptions that aren’t necessarily true? Identifying these details helps you later on in the process. 

2. Research

At this point, you likely have a general idea of the problem—but in order to come up with the best solution, you need to dig deeper. 

During the research process, collect information relating to the problem, including data, statistics, historical project information, team input, and more. Make sure you gather information from a variety of sources, especially if those sources go against your personal ideas about what the problem is or how to solve it.

Gathering varied information is essential for your ability to apply the critical thinking process. If you don’t get enough information, your ability to make a final decision will be skewed. Remember that critical thinking is about helping you identify the objective best conclusion. You aren’t going with your gut—you’re doing research to find the best option

3. Determine data relevance

Just as it’s important to gather a variety of information, it is also important to determine how relevant the different information sources are. After all, just because there is data doesn’t mean it’s relevant. 

Once you’ve gathered all of the information, sift through the noise and identify what information is relevant and what information isn’t. Synthesizing all of this information and establishing significance helps you weigh different data sources and come to the best conclusion later on in the critical thinking process. 

To determine data relevance, ask yourself:

How reliable is this information? 

How significant is this information? 

Is this information outdated? Is it specialized in a specific field? 

4. Ask questions

One of the most useful parts of the critical thinking process is coming to a decision without bias. In order to do so, you need to take a step back from the process and challenge the assumptions you’re making. 

We all have bias—and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unconscious biases (also known as cognitive biases) often serve as mental shortcuts to simplify problem solving and aid decision making. But even when biases aren’t inherently bad, you must be aware of your biases in order to put them aside when necessary. 

Before coming to a solution, ask yourself:

Am I making any assumptions about this information? 

Are there additional variables I haven’t considered? 

Have I evaluated the information from every perspective? 

Are there any viewpoints I missed? 

5. Identify the best solution

Finally, you’re ready to come to a conclusion. To identify the best solution, draw connections between causes and effects. Use the facts you’ve gathered to evaluate the most objective conclusion. 

Keep in mind that there may be more than one solution. Often, the problems you’re facing are complex and intricate. The critical thinking process doesn’t necessarily lead to a cut-and-dry solution—instead, the process helps you understand the different variables at play so you can make an informed decision. 

6. Present your solution

Communication is a key skill for critical thinkers. It isn’t enough to think for yourself—you also need to share your conclusion with other project stakeholders. If there are multiple solutions, present them all. There may be a case where you implement one solution, then test to see if it works before implementing another solution. 

7. Analyze your decision

The seven-step critical thinking process yields a result—and you then need to put that solution into place. After you’ve implemented your decision, evaluate whether or not it was effective. Did it solve the initial problem? What lessons—whether positive or negative—can you learn from this experience to improve your critical thinking for next time? 

Depending on how your team shares information, consider documenting lessons learned in a central source of truth. That way, team members that are making similar or related decisions in the future can understand why you made the decision you made and what the outcome was. 

Example of critical thinking in the workplace

Imagine you work in user experience design (UX). Your team is focused on pricing and packaging and ensuring customers have a clear understanding of the different services your company offers. Here’s how to apply the critical thinking process in the workplace in seven steps: 

Start by identifying the problem

Your current pricing page isn’t performing as well as you want. You’ve heard from customers that your services aren’t clear, and that the page doesn’t answer the questions they have. This page is really important for your company, since it’s where your customers sign up for your service. You and your team have a few theories about why your current page isn’t performing well, but you decide to apply the critical thinking process to ensure you come to the best decision for the page. 

Gather information about how the problem started

Part of identifying the problem includes understanding how the problem started. The pricing and packaging page is important—so when your team initially designed the page, they certainly put a lot of thought into it. Before you begin researching how to improve the page, ask yourself: 

Why did you design the pricing page the way you did? 

Which stakeholders need to be involved in the decision making process? 

Where are users getting stuck on the page?

Are any features currently working?

Then, you research

In addition to understanding the history of the pricing and packaging page, it’s important to understand what works well. Part of this research means taking a look at what your competitor’s pricing pages look like. 

Ask yourself: 

How have our competitors set up their pricing pages?

Are there any pricing page best practices? 

How does color, positioning, and animation impact navigation? 

Are there any standard page layouts customers expect to see? 

Organize and analyze information

You’ve gathered all of the information you need—now you need to organize and analyze it. What trends, if any, are you noticing? Is there any particularly relevant or important information that you have to consider? 

Ask open-ended questions to reduce bias

In the case of critical thinking, it’s important to address and set bias aside as much as possible. Ask yourself: 

Is there anything I’m missing? 

Have I connected with the right stakeholders? 

Are there any other viewpoints I should consider? 

Determine the best solution for your team

You now have all of the information you need to design the best pricing page. Depending on the complexity of the design, you may want to design a few options to present to a small group of customers or A/B test on the live website.

Present your solution to stakeholders

Critical thinking can help you in every element of your life, but in the workplace, you must also involve key project stakeholders . Stakeholders help you determine next steps, like whether you’ll A/B test the page first. Depending on the complexity of the issue, consider hosting a meeting or sharing a status report to get everyone on the same page. 

Analyze the results

No process is complete without evaluating the results. Once the new page has been live for some time, evaluate whether it did better than the previous page. What worked? What didn’t? This also helps you make better critical decisions later on.

Critically successful 

Critical thinking takes time to build, but with effort and patience you can apply an unbiased, analytical mind to any situation. Critical thinking makes up one of many soft skills that makes you an effective team member, manager, and worker. If you’re looking to hone your skills further, read our article on the 25 project management skills you need to succeed . 

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Brainstorming: techniques used to boost critical thinking and creativity  .

Brainstorming and critical thinking have the same goals—problem solving.  Critical thinking  is how we arrive at informed judgements or decisions through a sequenced and disciplined process.  Brainstorming , on the other hand, is more spontaneous. Brainstorming relies on group participation (or single contemplation) in a relaxed, non-threatening environment.

Table of Contents

What is the brainstorming method?

Brainstorming is a form of creative thinking that involves what is known as lateral thinking.  Lateral thinking  also involves a systematic process leading to logical conclusions. However, lateral thinking changes the playing field by arriving at the desired goal through completely different angles.

Brainstorming is a more relaxed and informal approach to solving problems. Anyone who has been to a successful brainstorming session has been encouraged to toss in thoughts and ideas that at first might sound a bit crazy or impractical. By virtue of their uniqueness, those ideas usually morph into imaginative ideas.

Brainstorming critical thinking can be a silver bullet against conventional group decision making. Anyone who has been around a conference table occupied by powerful, opinionated people who want to impress a strong leader knows how  groupthink  can suppress input and stifle good decision making.

When used in non-threatening, relaxed situations, brainstorming can promote openness, camaraderie and buy-in as solid group-based solutions emerge. The old saying that “those who plan the battle don’t battle the plan” applies.

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How is brainstorming used in critical thinking?

Going full circle, critical thinking can clean up the process by vetting the ideas and possibilities arrived at through brainstorming and testing their practicality.

Individual brainstorming critical thinking vs. group brainstorming

Individual brainstorming  frees everyone from the worry about egos and the opinions of others. This single approach works well when solving simple problems, generating a list of ideas, or focusing on a broad issue.

For individual brainstorming, you need a comfortable place with minimal distractions and to just to sit and think. There are some very good  mind mapping software  products that can help you arrange and develop your ideas without the restrictions of formal outlining.

On the other hand,  group brainstorming  opens access to the broader experience and creativity of team members. Again, in group brainstorming, everyone feels that they have contributed, and knows that others have creative ideas to offer.

This post describes:

1. the steps for setting up and conducting a brainstorming session; and

2. brainstorming techniques you can start using right away

3. ways to get the most out of brainstorming sessions

Brainstorming critical thinking steps

MindTools  recommends the following steps in setting up group brainstorming critical thinking sessions:

1. Prepare the participants.

Preparation is important. Find a comfortable meeting place and gather up the tools—pens, post-it notes, and a means for recording the session. Appoint someone to record the ideas and display everything—the notes, etc., where everyone can view them.

If needed, start with an icebreaker to make the participants comfortable. You could, for example, ask each participant to tell the group something about themselves that is not widely known.

2. Define the problem you want to solve or the goal you want to reach in the brainstorming critical thinking session.

Take time to think through and clearly write out the goals of your brainstorming session. Include any criteria that must be met and make sure everyone knows that your objective is to come up with as many ideas as possible.

Keep your objective statement posted prominently throughout the session. Then begin the session with some quiet time to allow everyone to share their ideas, with a fair opportunity to contribute.

3. Be a proactive facilitator and keep the discussion going.

When the ideas are ready, begin with a group discussion that builds on those ideas. Encourage even the quietest people to contribute, and don’t be afraid to throw your own ideas into the mix.

Keep the group on track, and when the session gets off point, refocus the group. However, don’t follow one idea too long, and make sure there is a sufficient variety of ideas to generate solutions in detail. If someone in the group asks to explore an idea alone, allow them the freedom to work on their own and report back to the group.

4. Watch for brainstorming “saboteurs”

A brainstorming session can go off the rails and demotivate the group. Many factors can result in unproductive, repetitive, or negative effects; for example:

• Extroverts and quick thinkers can monopolize the conversation: This leaves no time for other teammates to contribute.
• The group settles and focuses only on the first few ideas brought up in the session: This “anchors” the group and stifles new ideas, which prevents the team from moving on.
• Unprepared participants, followed by awkward silence: This could cut the meeting short simply to put the group out of their misery.
• Disconnected remote workers: When trying to brainstorm online through a video conference, the tendency is for people to talk over one another. Plus, it is difficult to capture creative energy when people are face to face in the same location.

Popular brainstorming critical thinking  techniques  to prevent group brainstorming sabotage

Jenna Wilson, writing for  WeWork.com , describes 10 effective team brainstorming techniques and strategies. Brainstorming, she writes, “have three steps: idea capture, discussion and critique, and selection.” She recommends the following strategies:

Brainwriting , a nonverbal brainstorming method, where everyone jots down three ideas that relate to the topic under discussion. After about four to six minutes, everyone passes their ideas to another person, who builds on the ideas by adding bullet points or creative statements. When the ideas have been passed around full circle, the group can decide which are the best to pursue.

Brainwriting overcomes the pitfalls of extroverts and quick thinkers monopolizing the conversation, as well as the above-mentioned anchoring effect. Likewise, everyone has the opportunity to contribute, allowing for progress beyond the first ideas discussed in the session.

Rapid ideation,  where individuals quickly write out as many ideas and solutions as possible in a strictly enforced amount of time, prior to their discussion, critique, and fleshing out.

Rapid ideation helps avoid the tendency of shooting down an idea before it has time to grow and develop. It allows everyone to contribute before the discussion begins. Enforcing a time limit also prevents hesitancy in presenting ideas before sharing them with the group.

Figure storming,  where the group chooses an absent well-known figure and discusses how that person would approach the problem or think about an idea.

This also draws hesitant teammates out by allowing them to attach someone else’s name to an idea the teammate favors.

Round-robin brainstorming , where every member of the group must contribute at least once before anyone else can contribute a second time. If the person cannot contribute on their first turn, come back at the end after they have had more time to think.

Similar to rapid ideation, round-robin brainstorming requires everyone to participate. In your meeting announcement , make sure the team knows what will be required and is prepared to contribute.

Group mind mapping,  where the group begins with one idea and then draws lines connecting sub-ideas to the first one. This is a great approach for visual thinkers. Sometimes an idea is so “out there” that it can be mapped as a “floater” on the mind map chart and inspire even more lineal connections.

The step-ladder technique , which is rather complex, but ensures that the group is not heavily influenced by the first few ideas or the most vocal advocates. This brainstorming technique begins when two team members confer in private for a few minutes, whereupon a third person joins the session with some of their ideas—before discussing what the first two discussed.

Then individuals of the group return to the room one by one and share their ideas before knowing what ideas are already under consideration. Meanwhile, outside the room, before joining the session, other teammates can brainstorm together or write down their own ideas, but not discuss those ideas with anyone until they join the group.

Additional brainstorming techniques include:

• Visualization-based : to boost artistic thinking
• Starbursting: A “who, what, when, where, why, and how” approach that focuses on questions rather than answers and encourages examination of an idea from every angle
• Changing the scenery: changing the location of the brainstorming session to brush away the cobwebs of familiarity and promote fresh thinking and new ideas

Finally, Jena Wilson suggests the following to get the most out of a brainstorming session:

1.  Allow people to prepare . Give them a clear idea of the problem at least 24 hours prior to the session and ask them to come prepared with ideas.

2.  Communicate your desired outcome . A statement of “why we are coming together” should be up front in your meeting announcement.

3.  Include new people , especially those in the organization that will be affected by the outcome of the session.

4. Make it clear that there are “no bad ideas.”

5. Follow up with a plan and announcement of how the organization will bring the new ideas to reality.

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Jenny Palmer

Founder of Eggcellentwork.com. With over 20 years of experience in HR and various roles in corporate world, Jenny shares tips and advice to help professionals advance in their careers. Her blog is a go-to resource for anyone looking to improve their skills, land their dream job, or make a career change.

Further Reading...

Ultimate Guide to Setting SMART Career Objectives (with Examples)

10 Self-Help Books That Actually Help Improve Your Life and Career

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Plan a Better Meeting with Design Thinking

• Maya Bernstein

Start with empathy.

Nine out of ten people admit to daydreaming in meetings. Seventy-three percent do other work. That’s because most meetings are poorly designed. How do you improve the situation? By applying design thinking principles. Start with empathy, by asking what attendees should get out of the gathering? Next, set a frame, or purpose and desired outcome, for the meeting. Then think creatively about how best to achieve those goals. And, finally, test-drive your plan with attendees and tweak it based on their feedback.

“Sometimes, when I sit in meetings, especially ones in which people don’t seem engaged, I calculate the cost in staff time. I’ve estimated that one standard weekly meeting in my bureau — 50 people sitting in a cookie-cutter conference room, looking both bored and anxious — costs around $177,000 annually, and surely this scenario occurs throughout the [organization] hundreds of times a day. It drains us, and it breeds cynicism. So many meetings are lost opportunities.”

• Maya Bernstein is an independent consultant working in the areas of innovation, leadership, and creativity. She is a faculty member at the Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership and co-director of the  Executive Certificate in Facilitation  program.
• Rae Ringel   is the president of  The Ringel Group , a leadership development consultancy specializing in facilitation, coaching, and training. She is a faculty member at the Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership and founder of the  Executive Certificate in Facilitation  program.

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