Being the one in charge of setting up meetings in the workplace is a big task with a lot of fear surrounding it. These individuals have the unique mission of creating a break in someone’s workday, sharing feedback, and inviting criticism. Below, we discuss a few great ideas for improving collaboration in your meetings that may change how your office functions for the better.
Be Clear About Intent
Nowadays, we all know that dreaded feeling of attending a meeting that could’ve been an email. This single thought alone can deter interest in future meetings and decrease engagement and collaboration. It’s critical to ask management and meeting arrangers about the primary intention for calling a meeting and if the information is meeting-worthy.
When you deem the information meeting-worthy, ensure that you make the intentions clear for each participant and guest. This way, they have the opportunity to draw mental expectations around potential questions, feedback, and their schedule beforehand. Collaboration can improve when people are ready to attend with intent in mind.
Implement an Agenda Creation Process
If and when leadership involves more than one individual, consider pulling everyone together before the meeting to collaborate on an agenda. This can keep a clean flow of transition between topics and allows the presenters to deliver information in an organized way.
The attendees don’t want to sit in on an ill-prepared meeting. Why? Because this further adds to miscommunication and makes them feel as though this should have been an email. At the beginning of the meeting, provide them with the agenda so that they can organize their thoughts and feelings and understand what’s to come.
Delegate the Agenda Across Team Members
Another part of the agenda-creation process is delegating the topics outlined to a management or hosting team member. When you gather everyone for the meeting and someone new presents information, you increase engagement and overall interest by avoiding monotonous deliveries.
Additionally, this provides clean breaks after each segment to ask or answer questions, or you can save them until the end if you’d prefer. The best way to showcase the information, agenda, and structure of the meeting to everyone participating is by using audiovisual (AV) equipment. High-quality professional AV equipment can provide many benefits to your meeting, such as dependability.
Welcome a Free Space for Feedback
One of the most vital aspects of improving the collaboration efforts for meetings is to create and welcome the space for feedback. Without this aspect, only the presenters speak, and no one else can share their thoughts.
Whether you create space after each segment or build in a 15-to-30-minute post-information brainstorming session, it’s imperative that you welcome the participants to speak their minds and ask questions. Even if nobody asks a question, providing them with the opportunity to express their thoughts can give them the trust they need to feel cared for in the workplace and foster overall collaboration efforts.
Avoid overthinking and ponder the benefits of intense workplace connectivity. When everyone feels valued and heard, your production can increase.