10+ tricks that make meetings better

Quick check-in: How do you feel when you think about your last meeting? Can you remember how it felt afterwards? Were you motivated and energized? Or confused and tired?

For many of us, meetings are part of our daily work routine. Unfortunately, they don't always achieve their goal, which is to illuminate issues from different perspectives, unearth new insights and deliver better results. There are some basic rules that can make this more successful. We have just implemented one of them here:

1. Check-in and check-out are at the beginning and end. 

• At check-in, all participants have their say and share their feelings. This establishes closeness and creates the basis for constructive collaboration.
• At check-out, the meeting is briefly reflected upon and there is room for suggestions for improvement.

2. The goal is known to all. 

• What do you want to achieve with the scheduled meeting? If the goal is clearly stated, it is easier to achieve.
• If it is already communicated with the invitation, you can also decide for yourself whether your contribution is important and your participation necessary.

5. Meetings become more efficient with facilitation.

• Clear leadership is needed when facilitating a meeting.
• Facilitators keep the meeting on schedule and focused on the goal. They even decide what input and discussion is helpful at any given time.

6. Strategy, operational, relationship? The focus is on one level.

• Be it unresolved conflicts or strategic discussions of principles, when actually only the next steps of a project are planned - it saves time (and nerves) to discuss only one level in the meeting.

7. Roles are distributed.

• In addition to the standard roles in meetings (taking notes, moderating, time keeping), your own role is also important: In which role are you currently speaking? This keeps the focus more on the matter at hand and less on people / egos.

8. Some discussions / topics are simply outsourced.

• In a meeting there should be room for topics that concern everyone present. It is worthwhile to shorten discussions (moderation!) or to outsource them to a 1:1 meeting.