QOTW: How Do I Run a Great Meeting?

Asked to give a talk about this 1Q20 on this topic this week...so thought I'd start putting some of my pet peeves and rants down here. CAUTION: I HAVE VERY STRONG OPINIONS (and a lot of pet peeves) when it comes to effectively running meetings. Give a listen, and yes - I have a tone here - but it's only because I'm sensitive to your time, and I want everyone, myself included - to run some great, efficient meetings out there! Friends don't let friends run crappy, inefficient meetings that could have been an email. 🙌 And, in true form, here's my tips in an agenda written format for you on this episode! Tips on Running a Solid, Productive Meeting: 1. Does this REALLY need to be a meeting? Ask yourself if you REALLY need to even have a meeting in the first place. 2. Who REALLY needs to be in the room? 3. Agenda with appt - Send out a written detailed agenda WITH the calendar appointment - and better yet, include data and questions for people to bring to the meeting. 4. Send out prep and background work before the meeting for people to review (Jeff Bezos is a fan of this.) 5. START and END the meeting ON TIME. Seriously - honor those who show up on time. Think of it this way - every minute you start late or end late, you could be robbing someone of their next genius idea, creative new thing, or amazing SOMETHING ELSE they could be doing instead of WAITING for YOUR MEETING. 6. If you're leading the meeting - have someone take notes real time. 7. If you're also leading the meeting - take the squawkers offline and into the parking lot. Democratize all ideas around the room and give people equal airtime - including your introverts who have some of the best ideas but who will never share unless pointedly asked. 8. Ditto with derailing minutiae - parking lot that stuff! 9. Recap the last 5 minutes with action items. 10. Note taker should send out the notes immediately after the meeting with action items. There you go.