Meeting

From ArticleWorld

Meetings are discussions which aim to produce a certain outcome between two or more individuals. With the new technology available today it is now possible to carry out meetings in several ways other than the traditional physical face to face method. These new methods include conference calling and e-meetings.

Meetings are essential to the daily running of companies as they are an important part of the processes of communication. It often occurs that meetings are so common that they are taken for granted and not used in the right way. Unless properly organized and executed meetings can be a waste of time and resources.

Due to this problem with meetings there are now jobs related to the planning of meetings. Another career that has emerged is that of meeting facilitation in which a trained professional uses techniques to direct meetings through conflict resolution towards the desired goal.

Types of meetings

Meetings fall into three general classes which include status meetings, work meetings and meetings that serve no functional purpose. The status meetings are normally Leader-led and are formatted in the form of one-way reporting to the leader. Work meetings normally are conducted to make decisions on a particular issue. They are most productive when a neutral facilitator is present who is able to bring meeting design, processes and expertise into the process of achieving a common goal. The other class of meetings are those which are regularly scheduled and really are just in case meetings. These meetings are counter-productive and contribute little in terms of progress.

Other types of meetings are staff meetings, team meetings, ad-hoc meetings, management meetings and board meetings.

Rules for meetings

There are some general rules for meetings. One of these is to clearly outline the meeting's objectives. This is to avoid the diversion of the meeting from the major objectives outlined. Another rule is to create an agenda. This is a program or list of the items to be covered in the meeting. Advance preparation is also essential and this allows the meeting to progress better as all persons involved are knowledgeable on the subject under discussion. Other important rules for meetings include proper time management, pre- and post-meeting discussion, discussion-management process and the planning, discussion and assignment of roles.