How to get the most out of meetings you chair

1. Here's an idea

At the beginning of your next meeting, appoint one of the participants to be a ‘progress-checker’.

Every 15 or 20 minutes, this person should interrupt the meeting for a progress check. Is the agenda being adhered to? Are people working towards the set goals? Are they spinning their wheels? What has been accomplished so far? What still needs to be accomplished?

Rotate the position of progress-checker for every meeting, so that every particip-ant learns the importance of keeping a meeting on track.

2. Smile & ponder

There was a manager who had an old-fashioned alarm clock. He brought it to all his staff meetings and told everyone right at the beginning: ‘This meeting will be exactly one hour long. When this alarm goes, I go. When I go, you go. The meeting is over.’

Not only did his staff not resent it, they liked it and admired him for organising everybody’s time. Those meetings always ended on time, and invariably they got through the agenda.

The moral: Set a time limit for your meetings and stick to it.

3. Here's an idea

Successful meetings require meaningful participation. Get into the habit of asking those people making comments (especially long comments) to summarise their two main points when they finish. This helps clarify the speaker’s (and the other participants’) thoughts and lets people know you always want to get to the bottom line. …