Board Meetings can be a productive exchange of ideas or a black hole in which time, effort, and energy disappear without a trace. However, a common feature of almost all meetings is that they can go much better if everyone present is familiar with the rules of effective communication.
Checklist for Board Meetings and Their Parts
Board Meetings are now held with all physically present in the same room or even with virtual participants. Invitees from different parts of the world and from different time zones can be at the meeting in the format of an online meeting. Nowadays, only the time and not the venue are often determined for the meeting. Board Meetings limited only in time are more convenient to attend, but this does not mean that there should be more of them.
Follow the next steps to perform the most effective Board Meeting:
- Make sure you really need a meeting before scheduling one. Perhaps the issue can be resolved in 10 minutes by phone or email?
- Each meeting should have a purpose: you either need to make a decision or complete a series of actions together (brainstorming mentioned above). Corporate news, schedule changes, appointments, access keys, or password changes can almost always be sent via email.
- Don’t spend more time in meetings than you really need. Most company meetings are scheduled for a full hour, while they can be 20, 30, or 45 minutes maximum.
- Start on time. Don’t wait for latecomers – it only encourages them.
Types of Meetings and Their Goals
There are a number of types of meetings that differ in their goals. The success of the entire planner directly depends on the choice of how to conduct the meeting. If the manager forgets the purpose of the meeting, then the results can be forgotten. Here are the main types of meetings:
- Educational meeting. It is a conference. It fulfills the educational purpose; the participants of the meeting get the necessary knowledge and improve their skills.
- Informational. It is used to collect information on a specific issue or problem, receive feedback from employees, and summarize the received data.
- Explanatory. It is necessary to increase the clarity of the decisions made by the management to explain the motivation of one’s point of view.
- Problematic. The meeting is necessary to identify specific problems and determine ways to solve them.
The Main Stages of the Board Meeting
In general, the course of any event or collective process can be divided into four stages – preparation, beginning, main part, and conclusion. The Board Meeting should be held in the following order:
- Announcement of order. First, list the issues that will be discussed at the meeting. This should be done very briefly – the details will begin during the discussion of the issues themselves.
- Results of previous meetings. What tasks were set, how was the process of their implementation, and what difficulties arose?
- Start of discussion. From important and urgent tasks, gradually move to simpler ones. If necessary, brainstorm or brainstorm.
- Question time. Listen and answer the questions of the audience. Sometimes for employees, a meeting is the only moment when they can get an answer to urgent questions from the manager.
- Completion of meetings. In the end, as we have already said, you can allocate time for issues not related to the business direction: life outside the office, corporate events, celebrations, employee team building, and so on.