Prepare before the meeting starts. More than 10 minutes.
State the purpose of the meeting at the beginning of the meeting. Without a stated purpose, meetings tend to be directionless, long-running, and leave people feeling like they wasted their time.
Get expectations from everyone at the beginning of the meeting. This gives everyone the ability to participate and ensures that they know why they’re there.
When people start rambling or dominating the meeting, ask questions,
restating what you think they’re saying. Often when a rambler or dominant
player sees that they’ve been heard and understood, they stop talking.
Be aware of time and wrap up when appropriate. Wrapping up should happen either (a) when the goal of the meeting has been accomplished or (b) just before time runs out – whichever comes first. An effective meeting can and should end early if its goal has been accomplished.
Encourage everyone to share benefits & concerns at the end of every
meeting so the next meeting can be better.
Thanks to Sogeti and Lorel Au for offering a class on
meeting management where I learned all of this.