Remove the stigma from your organization’s meetings

Business meetings can get a bad rap. However, when approached correctly, they can shed this reputation and be events that team members actually look forward to. To accomplish this, meeting organizers and management need to recognize the needs of their employees and make the most efficient use of their time. 

Most often, resentment of meetings develops from employees feeling that their time is not respected. This occurs when they are required to sit through meetings that have no relevance to their current tasks, when meetings run late or when their contributions are dismissed. 

Addressing these issues require the organizer to be better prepared for the meeting, and to have a concrete agenda. This agenda should also be forwarded to all meeting participants well ahead of the scheduled starting time, so they have a chance to review the topics and consider what subjects they would like to gather feedback on. 

The organizer also needs to strictly follow the time allotments detailed in the agenda. For example, if the agenda allows only 20 minutes for the review of a particular topic, but it is still being discussed half an hour later, it is the organizer's responsibility to move the conversation on to the next subject. This helps ensure that there is sufficient time to address all topics , while still ending at the scheduled time. 

It is also important that all meeting attendees participate. The meeting leader should elicit feedback from the more reserved attendees, helping them become engaged and add value to the conversation.

If you'd like to change your employees' opinions about the utility of meetings, it is often beneficial to choose the right setting. On Point Executive Center's Tampa meeting rooms provide the perfect atmosphere to develop a new meeting culture for your organization. Our facilities include 70-inch touchscreen smartboards that can introduce a new element to your meetings and increase collaboration.