Effective Meeting Tips

Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch, recently had a great series of posts about meetings. Here are the best of the bunch:

• Work to keep your meetings small and your communication large - too many ministries make the mistake of including too many people in too many meetings. The purpose of the meeting determines the size of the meeting.
• The start of the meeting sets the tone for the rest of the meeting - start on time with a planned agenda and your chances of a successful meeting are high. On the other hand, waiting while people drag in, starting late, and letting the discussion wander all over the place makes for an unproductive meeting.
• Keep the discussion moving - maintain a sense of polite urgency, pushing hard enough to keep the meeting moving but not so hard that discussion and decision-making is rushed.
• Compliment ideas and contributions - whenever possible, make someone else look good in the meeting.
• Plan your communication - if you are successful in keeping your meeting on the small side, there will be many people who need to know some of the content of the meeting. Ask "Who needs to know what?", plan the communication strategy and execute it well.
• Summarize the decisions made and the action plan - summarize what you've covered and who will take what action.

Utilizing these ideas will help your next meeting be a productive use of time rather than a dreaded time waster.