Ineffective meetings are more than just annoying—they’re expensive. In fact, such meetings cost the U.S. economy about $70 to $283 billion per year, according to CBTS, a technology solutions company.
Struggling with your own team gatherings? Turns out, a lot of the frustration may be coming from bad or underused technology. Here are some things to do to make your meetings more effective, from CBTS.
If you need to pull up online documents or notes, be sure to have them ready in a shared, easily accessible space so staff can follow along. This can be a big time-saver.
Engage employees by illustrating ideas with visual diagrams. You can do this by hooking up your laptop to a projector, or—if it’s a remote meeting—using a collaborative app.
Make sure all your employees are using the same tools and programs, so everyone can stay digitally connected. Working from the same programs can make it easy to share files and ideas in real time, reducing the need for follow-up emails.
If you’re holding your meetings remotely, eliminate the use of dial-in numbers by opting for a specific app that workers can regularly sign into. Mighty Meeting, Fuze, and Cisco WebEX Meetings are all options to explore.
Record meetings to refer back to later, so you’re not overly focused on note-taking and therefore not being as present. Playing back discussions may even help you identify other problem areas in your meeting structure.
Make sure to test out collaborative technology before holding a meeting, so, if something is amiss, you're not stuck troubleshooting while the group is kept waiting.
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