Meetings have a bad reputation and there is a lot of controversy around them. Do we need them or are they a waste of time. Some people hate them while others can't live without. Independent studies keep showing that 25 to 50 percent of meeting time is unproductive.

A meeting is a way of communicating and a phone call, email or even the Internet with many new and fancy communication tools cannot replace the benefits of direct personal contact in a face-to-face discussion between two or more people. But on the other hand, when meetings are not properly prepared and executed they can be a complete waste of time.

Issues with meetings

If meetings were easy and everybody would be satisfied with how we use and execute them, there would be no need for meeting resources like this one. The truth is that there are many things that can go wrong.

Some of the main issues with meetings are lack of preparation, lack of knowledge and experience on running a meeting, no follow up after the meeting and last but not least too many (and unnecessary) meetings.

The only way to improve this is to educate ourselves and take a fresh look at how we can improve the entire meeting process. It is in every organizations interest to invest and support this. One way of doing this is to create and enforce a basic and simple meeting policy.

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When you organize a meeting, it's your responsibility to use your time, and everyone else's as effective as possible.

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In the sections below you will find a lot of advice, tips and tricks on many aspects of the meeting process. We can't emphasize enough that preparation and training are key components. Be as prepared as possible and don't be discouraged when you have a bad meeting. It takes time and experience to lead good meetings. Try to get familiar and implement as many good practice techniques as possible. After each meeting (or even during the meeting), evaluate to see if and what went wrong and how to do it better next time.

• Planning a meeting
  

  In most cases, if you want your meeting to be productive, there is some work to be done to plan end prepare the meeting. How to get started and what needs to be done?

• Hosting a meeting

  Chairing a meeting is not always easy. There are many things you should and you can never be prepared enough.

• Meeting minutes

  When the meeting is over there is still work to be done. Without proper documentation it's like the meeting never happened.

• Follow up

  Between meetings is the time to make sure that agreed upon work gets done. How to follow up?

• Tools & templates

  In addition to preparation and experience, meeting tools are a key component of successful meetings. There are many tools and templates available to help you plan, organize and manage your meetings.

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