Using a primer for simple daily tasks (think tying your shoes, or fastening your seat belt) can seem like an unnecessary step for such rudimentary actions. However, if you take a moment to examine your current processes, you may discover more efficient alternatives that can add value and make your life easier. For example, in the office, the seemingly innocuous task of scheduling and executing team meetings is ripe for optimization. Think of your last meeting—were you frustrated by its inefficiency, redundancy, or aimlessness? Make sure your meeting doesn’t fall flat or waste your colleague’s time with these five tips for getting the most out of your next team meeting: 

1. Draft out your agenda
   No meeting should ever be scheduled without an agenda or goal-oriented description, otherwise, what are you talking about? Meetings should be used for making key decisions and generating action.
2. Invite the right people
   Have you ever been on a call with 10 other people, and you weren’t really sure why they were all there? Ever been one of those 10 people, and instead of listening, you spent time putting together your expense report or looking at puppies on Instagram? Focus on involving the main decision makers, and not simply including people just because they are on the same project or team.
3. Find the right time
   “I love having back-to-back meetings all day,” said nobody, ever. With that in mind, take under consideration whether someone has time to grab a quick bite or take a bio break, or make sure that you’re not catching them in transit. It is a small step you can take to help reduce the stress in someone’s day, especially since you’re already asking for their time.
4. Add some details
   Remind people about why their input and time are needed by reiterating the goals and agenda in the invite description. Next, get the conference setup details in. This is really alluding to all those times where you put “TBD” in the location description, and thirty seconds past the meeting start time, you’re frantically emailing everyone the dial-in details. It happens! There are times when you don’t always have the conference details in front of you, so the next time you find yourself scheduling a placeholder, add another event well before the call to remind you to finalize the details.
5. When it’s all said and done, take actual next steps
   One of the most critical things about meetings is the action that takes place afterwards.  Socializing meeting notes is obvious, but even more important is operationalizing them. If your agenda can’t get converted into a to-do list, then it’s just a table of contents. If you send out notes without turning them into tasks, then you’re sharing a diary. Even then, don’t stop at email. Make it easier on yourself and take care to add the actual next steps—be they decisions, goals or tasks—directly to your project management tool.  

Meetings are a great tool for building consensus. They help bring everyone together, enabling collaboration and team building. Unfortunately, when scheduling and executing a meeting it’s easy to fall into old, comfortable ways. Take some time to evaluate your meeting process—are you making the most of your time?

Learn how Bluewolf can partner with your business to help it strategically evolve and seize opportunities for improvement by looking at its everyday processes, operations, and technologies differently.