Welcome back. Meetings can be an effective method to distribute information, communicate with your team and stakeholders, and help keep a project on track. In this video, you'll learn how to organize and facilitate effective team meetings that will lead to a successful project. While the size, purpose, and format of meetings may differ, effective meetings always have the following elements in common. They're structured, intentional, collaborative, and inclusive. Let's study these elements in more detail. First, effective meetings are structured. This means they start and end on time. The attendees have been carefully selected. The meeting topics are prioritized. And the designated note taker has been assigned. Managing the meeting time and audience lets participants know that they're valued and appreciated. Remember that everyone's time is valuable. If someone's presence is unnecessary, you don't need to invite them to the meeting. Maybe you can share the notes. Include people who can contribute to the discussion and anyone who will be directly affected by the topics discussed. Structured meetings also have an agenda with prioritized topics. So the most important items are given appropriate attention. It's good to think about and set expectations for how long you expect the group to spend on a given topic. This is defined as timeboxing, which just means you're setting a time limit for discussion. In a timebox, you give each topic a buffer of a few minutes to make sure you're not over packing your agenda. Keep the meeting time in mind and make sure you schedule enough time for the topic you need to cover. If there are several topics you need to address consider scheduling a few shorter meetings with just one or two topics as their focus. After your first few team meetings, think about the pacing to know if you need to be more generous with the time given to each topic or if the group has time for a little more. If you get through your topics before your time is up, don't be afraid to call a meeting early. Everybody loves having their time back. Finally, a structured meeting should have a designated note taker. So you or anyone else can refer to the meeting notes later and find out what was discussed. The note taker could be you or another meeting attendee. For this reason be clear about how, when, and to whom the meetings outcomes are shared. Again, this all depends on the type of meeting you're having and who is attending. I'll loop back to describe some different types of project meetings in the next video. The next point to consider is that effective meetings are also intentional. This means they have a clearly stated purpose and expectations, which should be in the meeting agenda as well as the meeting invite. So everyone understands why they're attending. The agenda needs to set clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during the meeting. It helps attendees prepare, keeps everyone focused on the right topics, and clarifies meeting expectations and goals. The purpose of your meeting might be to make a decision, assign tasks, propose/ invent an idea, or something else. Your meeting's purpose, or goal, describes the reason you're meeting and what you'd like to achieve. A well designed agenda increases the group's ability to address problems and prevents wasting time. For example, you may be reviewing last month's business sales and setting goals for the next month. Maybe your group needs to choose coordinators for an upcoming event. Or your goal could be to have your supervisor prioritize a list of tasks. The purpose might change from meeting to meeting, or it could stay the same. If input is needed by attendees, be sure to send any pre-reading materials in advance of the meeting so that everyone shows up prepared to participate. Depending on the purpose meetings can be formal or informal, have as few as two or three group members or have hundreds of attendees. Whatever it is, make sure you state a clear thoughtful purpose and strive to achieve that purpose by the end of the allotted time. Another element of effective meetings is encouraging a collaborative environment. Collaboration is when people work together to produce or create something. There are lots of ways to make your meetings collaborative, even if the purpose is for one person to share important information with the rest of the group. One easy way to do this is to be sure the agenda isn’t just full of presentations where participants are talked at. Be sure the agenda is clear about the objectives of the session. Will a decision be made, or is the session for information and discussion? Second, have a digital shared meeting document and encourage participants to write any comments or thoughts directly in the document. But more importantly, remind them that the notes will be shared. This encourages active listening and participation in real time during the meeting. Last, it's important to respect and embrace each individual's preferred communication style even in meetings, especially in collaborative meetings. Let folks know they're welcome to respond verbally, through the chat, in the meeting notes, or in any other format you'd like to include. The final element of an effective meeting is that it's inclusive. Inclusivity is the practice or policy of including people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized. When it's done well, inclusion leads to excellent collaboration, ensuring that every participants contributions are valued. As a project manager, you play a critical role in ensuring that meeting attendees feel supported and included. So offering additional resources for ways to participate is helpful. For both in-person and virtual meetings, consider appointing a meeting moderator or facilitator. This person will guide the meeting and help participants ask questions in real-time, while someone else is presenting. This way the presenter can stay focused on their topic while the moderator pays attention to the participants and can help guide participants on when they can chime in. It's also a good idea to leave space in the meeting for participants who've been quiet. At the close of a topic or before the meeting ends, you might consider going around the room once in a while and asking each person to comment on a particular issue or question. I like to call this a final flight check before everyone takes off and goes their separate ways. A key component of inclusivity is ensuring that your meetings and presentations are accessible. You'll find more information on this in the course resources. Another thing to consider is the level of internet access when conducting virtual meetings. For those without strong internet access, provide a phone dialing option. Most online meeting tools, including Google Meet and Zoom, have this option. Let participants know it's okay to turn off their cameras if they need to improve the connection or adjust the video quality. Focusing on inclusion helps build a sense of belonging and serves as a reminder that we live in a world with many different kinds of people. Creating a meeting space where people have different views, backgrounds, and experiences can do their best work and be there for one another is key. These tips aren't exhaustive by any means, but hopefully they can be useful to start empowering others to meaningfully join in and contribute. When done right, meetings can be incredibly useful communication tools. That's why it's important to be purposeful when designing meetings that are structured, intentional, collaborative, and inclusive. This will earn you a reputation for writing efficient, inclusive, successful meetings where everyone feels appreciated, which is great for your project and your career. Great job, so now we know a bit more about the effective methods to distribute information, communicate with your team and stakeholders, and keep a project on track. We've also learned some of the elements of creating an effective meeting like including a clear agenda, attendee list, taking detailed notes, and more. In the next video, we'll learn all about the most common types of project meetings.
