Two Questions That Bring Focus, Purpose to Every Meeting

Before any meeting begins, you should consider 2 important questions:

Why are we here? The people at your meeting should really WANT to be at your meeting. Ideally, they’ll have significant contributions to your cause. Everyone at the meeting should clearly, undeniably, know why he or she is seated around the table. If not, many of your participants will start drifting into thoughts of tonight’s dinner plans or their growing pile of work that sits undone because they don’t know why they’re at your meeting.

What do we hope to accomplish? There should be definitive, measurable goals to every meeting. Examples: By the end of this meeting, we should have agreed on a go to market plan for our Magic Widget Maker – or – At ths meeting’s conclusion, all in attendance should know what part they have to play in the new mobile readiness project. If your meeting participants wanted social hour, they’d go to Starbucks or a local watering hole. Give them clear guidelines on what will be done by the end of the meeting.

Agree? Disagree? What questions do you see as paramount to your next meeting?

Until next time,
Dan Naden