People in ministry have a lot of meetings. Perhaps you can benefit from Ken McIntyre’s list to run better ones:
1. Don’t meet: This is the best advice I can give you. Only meet if it’s absolutely necessary. The worst type of meetings are the ones that you just ‘do’ because it’s what ‘you always do’. Those types meetings are time-wasters and sap energy. I schedule face-to-face meetings only if they are mission critical, absolutely necessary and last resort.
2. Start on time: This is a non-negotiable. If you schedule a meeting for 6pm, start at 6pm…sharp. Each minute you delay punishes the punctual and rewards the tardy. If participants honor you by showing up on time don’t dishonor them by starting late.
3. Finish early: This is also a non-negotiable. If you schedule a meeting until 7pm, end at 6:55pm. People are busy and have carved out time to attend your meeting. Ending early is a sure-fire way to let them know you appreciate their time and honor their other commitments.
4. Take breaks: Don’t go for over an hour without a 5 minute bathroom/refreshment/brain space/tech break. “Pushing through” isn’t always the best practice.
5. Broadcast the purpose: Before you schedule a meeting make sure you and your participants know exactly what the purpose of the meeting is (ie. “To plan the ministry calendar for March, April and May”). This allows you & your participants to have a laser focus in preparing for and executing the meeting.
6. Distribute the agenda beforehand: If you think it’s important enough to drag your participants out of their house and away from their families to come to your meeting, then make sure they know what you’re going to be talking about. This will allow your participants to spend time brainstorming prior to the meeting instead of spending time doing that exact same thing during the meeting.
7. Use a Template: Templating your meetings allows you to prepare quicker and also allows the luxury of not having one of those “crap…I forgot to talk about that” type moments. Here’s a template I use for meeting with adult volunteers.
8. Ban technology: Technology can be the greatest hinderance to your meeting. Put the phones away and close the laptop (except for the person taking minutes). ‘E-grazing’ during meetings naturally means your mind is somewhere else. Take ‘tech breaks’ if you’re meeting goes longer than an hour.
9. Use technology: I know this seems contradictory to the previous statement but stay tuned. Why not use Skype, Google Hangouts, GoTo Meetings, Zoho, Join.me or the other gajillion ways to connect with the people you need to meet with? This is often a great solution as it cuts down travel time to meetings.
10. Create crystal clear action items: Delegate action items to the participants based on the meetings content. If you are meeting “To plan the ministry calendar for March, April and May” actions items could include: Chris – call the roller rink and book the space, Amy – book busses for all offsite events, Jack – create promo material for the teaching series.
