The Do's and Don'ts of a Meeting

For a meeting/conference/ or discussion to be successful, there are many aspects of communication, organization, and information analysis that have to be followed. This will result in all the participants in the meeting contributing effectively to the topic, and a higher level of communication all together. The following are the do's and don'ts for a meeting.

The Do's

1. Come in early to set up for the meeting.
2. Have a well organized plan for the meeting that covers all the topics you want to discuss.
3. Make sure to use good body language when speaking in front of others.
4. Ask questions pertaining to the subject at hand.
5. Listen to others opinions and feedback.
6. Dress appropriately for the occasion.
7. Mentally rehearse your presentation a few times.
8. Come prepared, with the proper information and background knowledge on the subject.

The Don'ts

1. Don't come late or leave the meeting early.
2. Don't keep your cellphone on you as it acts as a distraction.
3. Do not eat at the meeting.
4. Don't be culturally disrespectful (know your audience).
5. Don't talk with your back faced to the members of the discussion.
6. Don't interrupt others when they are talking.
7. Don't discriminate or be close minded to ideas other than your own.
8. Don't end the meeting without closure (audience is puzzled).

Business Communication

Business communication plays a huge role in the success of a good meeting. This will make sure that all the information that is covered in the presentation is clearly understood by the audience, which further results in a better over all communication. If throughout the process of the meeting the speaker is unclear on his/her content, there is the chance of miscommunication which leads to misunderstanding. If an individual digests the information improperly, the effectiveness of covering a particular subject is lost!

 

Fantastic video on differences between cultures, and body language.

But fortunately the individual running the meeting can avoid this problem by studying the process of not only business communication, but personal communication. If the individual hosting the meeting wants to give out his/her information as effectively as possible(in order to obtain the best feedback) they must be familiar with the way to communicate properly. These are steps in the communication process that must be followed in order to successfully distribute information to your listeners:

• Body language is a key component for giving good information. It is very important that the person delivering the information has good posture and good body language. This will result in a very easy to understand communication process.
• Selection of words play a big role in the communication process. Its best to avoid using slang, or phrases that may leave your audience in confusion. A lot of the time people pretend they understand you, when in reality they don't.
• Awareness of cultural differences is probably the biggest component of the communication process because there are many body gestures and communication that could be considered offensive. The last thing that you would want as a speaker is to offend your audience accidentally. 

This video is about certain gestures that other cultures find offensive.

Professionalism

When looking at the organizational factors that go into setting up a successful meeting, it is very important that a professional atmosphere is maintained. This professional atmosphere is developed not only through the person organizing the meeting, but a big contribution from the audience is needed. The reason that a meeting is held, is because an individual feels that it is necessary to set up a discussion in regards to a specific topic. But if the meeting is not held in a professional manor, the communication process will be deeply effected, and you jeopardize the success of the meeting.

The ways that you can make sure that a professional atmosphere is maintained is by following these guidelines:

1. Dress the part - If you are the individual that is hosting this meeting, it is very important that your appearance looks the part that you are trying to achieve. If you come into a business meeting with a pair of track pants and a sweater, to members of the discussion will have a very laid back feel, and potentially look at you as being unprepared.
2. Act the part - You are the individual that organized the meeting, so it makes the most sense that you are well educated on the topic and or able to respond to peoples questions. When you are unprepared for your meeting, it is very evident for your audience to notice.
3. Be direct and straight forward - When you are giving out information, it is very essential that you do not "sugar coat" it in regards important information. This means that the speaker of the presentation is not telling the information in an effective manor. For example; " I don't think that your fat, your husky".

The Use of Technology in a Meeting

Technology is something that we are constantly using in our world in order to make communication more efficient and effective. But does this mean that this is the best strategy to use during the process of a meeting/discussion? Personally I think that the use of technology in a meeting is very effective, if used properly. In many cases, individuals think that it is acceptable for them to bring their laptop to a meeting, and literally read off of their power point presentation. This is the best way to lose the attention of your audience, because the person listening feels the the speaker is using little body language, and use a monotone reading voice. But on a positive side, technology can be really helpful if the speaker knows how to use their resources. The use of technology in a meeting allows the speaker to use pictures, videos, and external data that is separate from the presenters personal information. This immediately results in the interest level of the viewer to increase because they can visual from images and videos, what the individual holding the meeting is trying to get across.

Some uses of technology which is commonly seen in business meetings are:

• Youtube- Which gives the listener in the presentation the opportunity to watch a video pertaining the subject.
• Microsoft PowerPoint- Allows the presenter to organized information in a way that is it digested in small facts or points.
• Microsoft Excel- The presenter can show a well organized business spread sheet which is organized and easy for the viewer to read
• Internet Explorer- Look up any information on the internet that could potentially give you the viewer more information on the subject at hand.

Timing During Meetings

A very important aspect that plays a key role in the success of a meeting/discussion is the timing not only during the meeting, but the timing of the whole process. When looking at the objective of holding the meeting, it is very important to set out a certain amount of time that you don't want the meeting to exceed. There are a lot of meetings which have a very small objective that wants to be cover, this usually results in a very brief meeting that is used to inform individuals in a short amount of time. This is very commonly seen in sports teams at a high school. For example the coach could hold a meeting for the boys baseball team only pertaining to the fact that the players have to come into school early the next morning. If this meeting were to be stretched out to be about half an hour to an hour (which is no longer a brief meeting) the individual that organized the meeting will end up wasting time, and not having enough to talk about to fill up the time of the meeting.

But having that said, also the timing of the information being giving out is very important! It is key for the individual organizing the meeting to plan out time that they will go over certain sections of their discussion. This will result in the time needed to give out all of the information being used efficiently and effectively.

In this picture the individual presenting has lost their audience potentially because of a bad use of body language (Staring at the PowerPoint).

Body Language as the Speaker

When you are the individual that is speaking during the meeting, it is very important that you make sure to keep the attention of your audience. If the audiences attention is constantly being kept, the speaker will be able to give and absorb the most possible information. Unfortunately if you are the person that is speaking and your posture is bad, and you are hard to understand, the success of the meeting is pretty much thrown out the window. The people that are listening to the speaker will get distracted and potentially interrupt the actual speaker because of a lose of interest on the topic. Also this can result in the individuals listening not absorbing the information in the meeting properly, resulting in inaccurate feedback.

When you are the individual speaking there are many simple actions that you will want to do in order to keep your audiences attention. The following are simple guidelines that the speaker should follow in a meeting:

• If you are the person that organized the meeting, it is pretty important to be there early or on time. This automatically informs the people attending the meeting that you are organized and want to get down to business.
• Make sure that you make eye contact with your listeners. This will not only force the audience to listen to what you have to say, but it becomes much easier for the individuals listening to understand you more clearly and see that you are passionate about what your talking about.
• Speak clearly and loudly. This will allow the people in the meeting to digest all of the information that is being given to them, without you having to repeat yourself.
• Use your body to show confidence in what you are talking about. As the speaker, it is important that you keep your back straight, head up high, and talk using your body and hands. This allows the listener to get a better understanding of what the individual is referring too. Also this will show the listeners that you are into and passionate about what you are discussing.

Why should we have a meeting?

What is the point? Is this really necessary? Are we actually having a meeting over this? These are all really common questions that many individuals ask about meetings. The reason that these types of questions are commonly asked is because many people are unaware of how a meeting can act as an asset to decision making. Typically the main reason that a meeting is held, is to have a discussion based on one or more topics, in order to achieve an answer to a specific question.

When having a lot of people in a meeting that all are educated on the topic of the meeting, will result in a lot of diverse and different perspectives from the members of the meeting. This allows people to give feedback on certain issues or topics, and also gives people the opportunity to properly express their opinion in a safe environment. Ultimately this will result in a wide range of of ideas on the subject at hand. This will further result in successful feedback throughout the meeting.

Look and Listen

Although there are a lot of differentiating factors that go into setting up a successful meeting, the role of the actual audience in the meeting plays the determining role on the success rate on the discussion. In the case that the audience is very loud and are not able to speak in turn could result in a lot of frustration between members, interruption, bad communication flow, and ultimately an unorganized meeting.

To make sure that you as a participant of a meeting contribute to its success is to make sure that the communication flow is running smoothly. This basically refers to communication etiquette in regards to letting each individual say what they have to say without interruptions. In many cases, an individual says something that makes you as the listener automatically rebuddle. But to make sure that you are contributing to the meetings success, each individual must respect the speaker to obtain the same respect from that individuals.

In order to take part in listening and putting in feedback during the meeting, it is essential to remember to do the following:

• Listen to the individual talking by making eye contact and not interrupting them to put in your own say. While the person is talking it is rude to be playing with your hands or papers in front of you. This becomes really distracting to the speaker.
• Wait and be patient. When the person is done talking and no other individual tries to simultaneously put there feed back in, now is an appropriate time to potentially become the speaker in the meeting.
• Feedback. By taking more of a defensive approach in being the speaker during the discussion allows you to absorb more information, further resulting in more effective feedback.

Organization During a Meeting

It is absolutely essential that before a meeting takes place, there has to be an organized plan on what will be covered in the meeting. In many cases, the individual organizing the meeting does a really poor job planning, which results in a very scattered and disorganized communication flow. The way that this can be avoided is by planning out a short outline on what you want to cover in the meeting, what order do you want to cover the information, and what is trying to be achieved by having this meeting.

When these organizational planned out meetings take place, people that are attending the meeting know what the main topic of the meeting is. This allows people to be more focused on the different aspects of the subject, resulting in a lot of positively regurgitated feedback. Also having a layout for the meeting, allows the individual organizing the meeting to write down certain aspects that pertain to their main goal.

By having a properly organized plan or layout on the different areas, and aspects that you want to cover during the meeting,your meeting will have a much higher chance of being successful!