Communication Strategies for effective Business meetings

Being that meetings are where communication takes place attendees exchange information whereas speakers disperse information. In order to have successful meeting, the speaker must demonstrate communication strategies that will help promote the flow of information. Meeting without structure and the proper leadership will not be a meeting that will get anything accomplished. In order to have effective meeting you need to put in a great deal of planning and preparation as well as having strong leaders. Being that once you have everything in place your meeting will be a great one.

Having the Right Facilitator

Facilitators are the one that keeps the group participations, plan and design the meetings, they are the ones that create and develop the agenda and make grounds rules before the meeting starts. Actually before a meeting starts all of the logistic information should be planned out and any problems that could come about should be worked out before the meeting. Most of the logistical items would be things like when and where to host the meeting, the particular layout is the best for the meeting, and whether there should be food and beverage and what types of materials would be need or required. Basically it is up to the facilitator to take upon the responsibility to create the best and most effective meeting possible.

Meeting Preparation

The key to having a great meeting is preparation. When meetings are prepared then everything can run smoothly and will free up more time to get other things done. For one you must understand the elements in which your meeting needs. Having an understanding of each element helps the plan in having an effective meeting. Below you will find five steps in which you should use in preparation for your business meeting.
 

·         What is the purpose and the outcome in which you are seeking after
·         Create boundaries for the business meeting.
·         Establish the meeting objectives
·         Who will be responsible for what
·         What are the agenda points and their objectives
·         Is your information for the meeting in order
·         What are the necessary tools need to used
·         Take Responsibility
·         Determine the time frame from the meeting
·         Roles, Who Role is Who’s and Who will play these roles
·         Determine ahead of time your logistical needs
·         Organized and place materials together
·         Give follow up Evaluation for attendees to complete at the end of meeting

What types of structure?

Once you have decided on the type of facilitate stick with it? If the meeting is going to be an informal meeting is sure that the remainder of the meetings is not informal. Having a proper agenda will cause you to structure and mandate things to stay on topic. It also keeps and organizational stand point, being one those things that need to get addressed will get addressed. Given the agenda ahead of time so that attendees can be prepared. Also the agenda should be conveying clearly what the meeting purpose will be as well as the other topics that will be discussed during the meeting. Having a detail length for each speaker with their specific times slots is great to have as well.

                                                                Give me a Break

Giving breaks throughout your meeting really depends upon the length of your meeting. If your meeting should be less than an hour then a break is not normally needed. Furthermore, if your meeting goes pass and hour you should offer your attendees a break every hour or hour and a half. Meeting breaks should be no longer then 10-15 minute break. Your goal is the to keep your group focused, however you can lose people they are tried, so that having a break gives them time to re-group and go back into the meeting to an have the ability to finish the meeting. Allowing your attendees to have breaks will avoid your attendee getting up and just walking around, it is much less disruptive and this way no one will not miss things well take an unscheduled break. Having foods and beverages available as well during these breaks, food items in which can be eaten in a short period of time would be the best option if you should decide to offer food during breaks. Making your attendees comfortable will help you to achieve effectiveness from your meeting.

                                                                         Ground Rules

Having ground rules in place before the meeting start; so that all of your participants understand them and is ;fully aware of them. It these ground rules are not made aware of before hands the meeting can actually fall apart. The very first rule should be that there should only be one speaker at time, people that need to speak should raise their hand or step up to the area where questions are being taken. There are some really simple things that could actually make a big difference in how a meeting is conducted as well as its effectiveness. Ground rules should include things as such:

  
                                    Behavior of the Facilitator

· Make plan of specific information about the behavior of attendees
· Determine how subjects will be introduced
· Determine who should present the agenda items
· Determine when the meeting will start and when it will end
· Make it known that the facilitator is in charge

Nevertheless, it is important to not put to many rules in place at one time. Having too many rules can become overwhelming and make you feel like a dictatorship to the attendees. You want to come across to your attendees that you create rules to maintain order not to become a burden on anyone. Rules are intended to keep the meeting on track and cause the meeting to be more effective.


Reference

Caruth, D., & Caruth, G. (2012, November/December). Three prongs to manage meetings. Industrial Management .

Duffy, J. (2013, October ). Make Meetings More Productive. Digtal Life / Get Organized . PC Magazine Digital Edition .

Romano, N., & Nunamaker, J. (2001). Meeting Analysis: Findings from Research and Practic. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-13.

Selland, J. (n.d.). Business Meetings: How to Run productive and Effective Business Meetings . Retrieved January 23, 2015, from Business Know How : www.businessknowhow.com