Complete Toolkit for Improving Meetings

• This Meetings Toolkit has been complied to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Meetings

• These tools and templates have been designed using direct feedback from many different businesses about the structure and culture of meetings

• Previous learnings and existing tools have been leveraged from the business, where relevant

• Best practice would be to use these tools and templates for all meetings

• However, from a practical perspective, you should use these tools and templates for all larger, recurring meetings (for both process and departmental meetings) and when it makes sense for other smaller or ad hoc meetings

• At a minimum, most meetings should have a TOR and an Action Log

• Better desired outcomes, making meetings work harder for you

• More efficient meetings translates into less time spent in meetings with more time to ‘do’

Purpose

Use

Benefits

Meeting efficiency & effectiveness is critical to improve the way to conduct a business

PURPOSE, USE & BENEFITS

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• No clear objective or agenda

• Lack of preparation

• Too many or the wrong people

• Late start or run out of time

• Interruptions or poor behavior

• Confrontational behavior and conflict

• No actions assigned

• Actions not completed

• Trying to solve the issue in the meeting

• Effective meetings are an essential requirement for managing business performance

• Effective meetings are critical for monitoring and sustaining performance

• Poorly run meetings are a tremendous source of lost-time and frustration for many organisations

• Meetings are an opportunity to build cohesive teams

• Meetings are the time to drive results, remove barriers and escalate issues

Why do our meetings typically go wrong?

Why do we need better meetings?

Poor meeting culture is often the core reason for ineffective meetings

MEETING EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS

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• Prepare and distribute TOR and agenda

• Agree and assign key roles for the meeting – Owner, Chairperson, Scribe and Coach

• Use the agenda to review the list of required versus optional attendees

• Complete due action items and update the electronic action log

• Prepare and distribute any pre-reading documents with executive summaries

• Read the pre-reading and clarify issues beforehand

• Everyone is responsible for an efficient & effective meeting, not just the Chairperson

• Be clear on the roles & responsibilities of each person in the meeting

• Review the TOR and agenda

• Review the action log from last meeting

• Recap on the agreed Ground Rules for the meeting and follow them

• The scribe should update the action log as issues arise and review with attendees at the end

• A meeting Coach should be present for key meetings to track meeting performance

• Update the electronic action log on a shared common drive within a day of the meeting

• People are responsible for actioning their own action items by the due date and updating the electronic action log

• The latest action log should be reviewed at the beginning of next meeting

─ Highlight any overdue action items

─ Review completed action items since last meeting, as required

Follow-Up (40%)Execution (20%)Preparation (40%)

Best practice meetings should align with “The 40-20-40 Rule”

MEETING EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS

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MEETING NAME: [Is the name descriptive enough?]FREQUENCY: ..DATE/ TIME: ../ ..DURATION: .. minutesLOCATION: ..

PURPOSE OF THIS MEETING:• To [insert a verb – eg. agree, inform, align]• To ..• To ..

INPUTS:• Action log• [What do people need to prepare

before this meeting to achieve the expected outcomes?]

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:• [What do you need from this

meeting? Should be linked to the purpose/s and used to drive discussion]

• To [insert a verb – eg. agree, inform, align]

• To ..

REQUIRED ATTENDEES:• .. (Owner)• .. (Chairperson)• .. (Scribe)• .. (Coach)• ..• ..

OPTIONAL ATTENDEES:• ..

AGENDA:1. [Insert a high-level/ generic here – please note that a more detailed agenda

template can be found on the next slide to be used as required]2. ..

MEETING BEHAVIOURAL GUIDELINES:• Respect each other – start on time, finish on time• Listen & value each others contributions• Challenge the issue, not the person• Clarify each attendee’s role & responsibility• Define purpose, agenda & expected outcomes• Use executive summaries, send pre-reads in advance• Come prepared – pre-read & clarify issues beforehand• Keep on topic, focus on the agenda• Align the rest of the team before/ after the meeting, not in it• Use the action log, assign responsibilities & timings• Commit to completing action items with urgency• Mobiles on silent, laptops only when related to meeting

TERMS OF REFERENCE – [INSERT MEETING NAME]

TORs & AGENDA

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• Ultimately the Meeting Owner is responsible for finalising the Agenda, however they may ask participants to pre-populate agendas before meetings on a shared drive

• Allocate a set time for each item to help keep meeting on track

• Identify the type of agenda item to be presented, leading to the expected outcomes:

─ INF: To inform – items will be a distribution of information only

─ ALI: To align – input is desired, be prepared to share ideas and views

─ AGR: To agree – following discussion/ presentations, attendees and key stakeholders will be invited to contribute to decision making process

• Avoid ‘any new business’, get people in the habit of providing agenda items and any pre-reading material ahead of time

There are a number of best practice guidelines to follow when creating Agendas for your meetings

TORs & AGENDA

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• Evaluates the meeting using the standard Meeting Scorecard• Tracks the meetings performance over time• Provides feedback on meeting performance to Meeting Owners and

attendees─ Initially this role will be fulfilled by HR, with coaching role assigned to

individual attendees over time

Meeting Owner

Chairperson

Scribe

Coach

• The leader of the meeting• Presents the TOR and agenda at the start of the meeting• Recaps and agrees that everyone is accountable to the agreed

behavioural guidelines

• Objectively facilitates the meeting• Manages the agenda during the meeting• Tracks the time against the agenda• Assigns a dedicated Scribe and Coach• Steers the conversation – focuses on the agenda, takes other

discussions “offline”• Distributes pre-reading 2 days in advance including the TOR and

agenda• Presents and reviews the Action Log at the start of each meeting

• Records all actions, decisions and resolutions during meeting• Updates the Action Log throughout the meeting• Distributes the updated Action Log to all participants within a day of the

meeting via a shared electronic drive• Presents and reviews the Action Log at the end of each meeting

The Meeting Owner & Chairperson may be the same person, depending on the

size of the meeting

“To Lead”

“To Facilitate”

“To Record Actions”

“To Measure & Track

Performance”

At a minimum, each meeting needs to have an Owner, Chairperson & Scribe

ROLES & RESONSIBILITIES

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• Purpose, Use & Benefits of this Meetings Toolkit

• Meeting Efficiency & Effectiveness

• Terms of Reference & Agendas

• Roles & Responsibilities

• Behavioural Guidelines

• Pre-Reading & Presentation Guidelines

• Length of Meeting Times

• Action Logs

• Meeting Scorecards

• Meeting Scheduling Guidelines

• Meeting Acceptance Guidelines

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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• Purpose, Use & Benefits of this Meetings Toolkit

• Meeting Efficiency & Effectiveness

• Terms of Reference & Agendas

• Roles & Responsibilities

• Behavioural Guidelines

• Pre-Reading & Presentation Guidelines

• Length of Meeting Times

• Action Logs

• Meeting Scorecards

• Meeting Scheduling Guidelines

• Meeting Acceptance Guidelines

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Why Are You Presenting?

Executive Summary

• To … (inform, align, seek approval for, update…)

• ..• (No more than 2 lines per key point, only provide the key pieces of information needed to

achieve your purpose for presenting, save the detail for the appendix if possible)

Risks/ Opportunities

• ..

Risks/ Opportunities

• ..

You can use this standard executive summary template if one doesn’t already exist for the document you’re presenting

As a rule of thumb, if you’re not able to successfully convey the key points of your presentation on one page using these headings

– you might not be ready to present

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – TEMPLATE

PRE-READING & PRESENTATIONS

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Current Problem Solution

• Most people feel that meetings are currently ‘too long’

• Some people spend their days in ‘back-to-back’ meetings that can finish later than scheduled, meaning their next meeting starts late

Length of Meetings Guideline:

• Schedule your meetings to finish at least 5 minutes early in Outlook

─ “If you schedule an hour, you will take an hour”

─ Finish early to allow you to get to your next meeting on time

Current Meetings Length Recommended Length

30 mins 25 mins

60 mins 50 mins

90 mins 75 mins

120 mins 100 mins

Avoid the issues related to back-to-back meetings by always scheduling your meetings to finish at least 5 minutes earlier in Outlook

LENGTH OF MEETING TIMES

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The standard Action Log template is included as a separate Excel model

All key meetings should use the standard Action Log to capture any issues, actions and resolutions with due date timings and a single person responsible for actioning

ACTION LOG

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• Purpose, Use & Benefits of this Meetings Toolkit

• Meeting Efficiency & Effectiveness

• Terms of Reference & Agendas

• Roles & Responsibilities

• Behavioural Guidelines

• Pre-Reading & Presentation Guidelines

• Length of Meeting Times

• Action Logs

• Meeting Scorecards

• Meeting Scheduling Guidelines

• Meeting Acceptance Guidelines

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

This is only a partial view of the full presentation. For further details and download please goto: www.straticx.com/store.html

• Purpose, Use & Benefits of this Meetings Toolkit

• Meeting Efficiency & Effectiveness

• Terms of Reference & Agendas

• Roles & Responsibilities

• Behavioural Guidelines

• Pre-Reading & Presentation Guidelines

• Length of Meeting Times

• Action Logs

• Meeting Scorecards

• Meeting Scheduling Guidelines

• Meeting Acceptance Guidelines

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

This is only a partial view of the full presentation. For further details and download please goto: www.straticx.com/store.html

• Purpose, Use & Benefits of this Meetings Toolkit

• Meeting Efficiency & Effectiveness

• Terms of Reference & Agendas

• Roles & Responsibilities

• Behavioural Guidelines

• Pre-Reading & Presentation Guidelines

• Length of Meeting Times

• Action Logs

• Meeting Scorecards

• Meeting Scheduling Guidelines

• Meeting Acceptance Guidelines

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

This is only a partial view of the full presentation. For further details and download please goto: www.straticx.com/store.html

This is only a partial view of the full presentation. For further details and download please goto: www.straticx.com/store.html