Meetings. Let’s be honest, we all dread them. However, they’re a necessary evil so that team members can get together to focus on goals, divide responsibilities and delegate tasks. Unfortunately, not all meetings tend to go as productive as we’d like them to. According to Better Meetings, 34% of the people surveyed believe that they waste 2-5 hours a week in meetings.
So what makes a meeting effective then? Each business is going to be different, but there are a few ground rules that you can abide by.
Always ask yourself the purpose for calling a meeting. What is this meeting for and what do you hope to achieve from it. If you have a clear goal in mind, it’ll make the meeting easier to focus on.
Only have people in your meetings that are directly related to the expected outcome. That way, you’re not wasting other people’s time and productivity.
Sharing notes is crucial to ensuring that anyone involved remembers the main points of that meeting. These notes can be short and sweet and get to the main argument and action items so that everyone is on the same page.
Those are just some general rules, but let’s take a look into some of the tools you can use to increase the quality of your meetings.
Who hasn’t heard of Slack? Especially nowadays. Slack has simple chat and channel functions that allow teams to communicate with individuals or departments. By taking a deeper dive into Slack, you may be able to use it to keep you on track with your meetings. Check out this list to learn more about Slack and other organizational and collaborative apps.
With Zoom, you can have video calls, audio calls, screen-share and more. It even lets you set up video conferencing calls directly from your Google or Outlook calendar. This makes it easier to access any Zoom meetings from your calendar.
Google Hangouts is a really good option to utilize for team meetings as well. With Hangouts, you can have quick chats while using your email, archive and delete old hangouts, and make video calls.
With Desktop.com's Video Conferencing you can voice or video call individual team members or an entire team with a single click, share your screen, share private in-call messages or use an in-call group chat. With a simple and intuitive design, and top of line sound and video quality, these new features will be a great resource for teams who want a streamlined workspace, which means faster and more efficient meetings.
Desktop.com Chat is a simple, yet effective tool for you to communicate with other individuals or teams. You can send private messages to people to get feedback, or set up group chats to discuss projects and deadlines. This quick, efficient method of communicating with coworkers will keep any project meetings or general information short and to the point. Coming next month: ability to chat across apps, meaning that you can use Desktop.com Chat to communicate with e.g. Slack or Microsoft Team users in a single chat instead of using multiple communication apps yourself.
Google Calendar integrates with everything from Desktop.com to Slack. It might even be the most forward-thinking calendar software from all the big companies. You can filter invites and responses in your email and sync multiple Gmail calendars so you can schedule meetings accordingly.
Nothing is worse than having a meeting and missing certain key details. Google Docs combats that by allowing any and all users included in the doc to view and even edit that page. This makes Google Docs great for collaborative meetings when departments need to brainstorm ideas or complete a task together. Everyone is able to pitch in and keep all the necessary information on one single document that anyone can review later.
Desktop.com is not only great for communicating, but also organizing files, links, bookmarks, and more for users to access and continue to work. If you are about to begin a meeting that requires certain information to be shared (such as bookmarks and links), instead of sending them individually and risking team members forgetting about them, Desktop.com allows you to create folders of pertinent information that you can then share with your team for easy (and lasting) access.
With Desktop.com, you can include any apps into your workspace, including Google Docs. This makes it easier for the team to login and access the correct document they need to stay organized for meetings.
By following these simple tips, you’ll run effective meetings that stay focused and productive. So go ahead and give it a try!
