The time spent preparing for a meeting is rarely wasted. Ensure that the right people attend, and that they reach the right decisions.
INVITING PARTICIPANTS
Choosing the right people to attend a meeting may determine whether its aims are achieved. Each participant should be attending because they can make a specific contribution, otherwise the meeting will not be making the best use of their time.
Selecting Attendees
When you are considering who to invite, certain people will probably present themselves as obvious choices. For example, if a loan is to be discussed, you should invite someone who can authorize the agreed amount. Others may be able to contribute specific skills or advice. Invite individuals whose communication skills will help the group work productively and achieve set goals. If some participants are needed only for part of a meeting, give them estimated start and finish times for the relevant items. This will save participants’ time and make the meeting easier to control.
Evaluating Contributions
When you have made an initial list of participants, pinpoint the potential contribution of each person in turn.
- Do they have information to share? For example, a sales manager reporting on customer reactions.
- Can they offer specific advice or information? For example, a production manager.
- Is their professional status useful? For example, a lawyer in a contract dispute?
- Can they implement agreed action? For example, a finance director at a budget meeting.
Notifying Attendees
One of the hardest parts of organizing a meeting is finding an appropriate time to suit all those you wish to invite. Sometimes the easiest way to fix a meeting is to arrange for it to follow an earlier one attended by the same people. Otherwise, e-mail, WhatSapp messages and phone calls can go back and forth until a date is fixed. If you find that someone cannot make the proposed date, consider whether it is feasible to hold the meeting without them before you rearrange times. Always send written confirmation of the time and place.
Considering Participants
Providing Information: An individual from one part of a company, such as production or sales, may be invited to inform other company members about progress in their department.
Offering Advice: A person’s current involvement with a particular issue, or their past experience, may qualify them to offer helpful advice to other participants.
Offering Specialized Expertise: The presence of a person with specialized skills, either from inside or outside a company, may facilitate discussion,
Authorizing Action: Financial decisions in particular, such as signing or negotiating a new contract, may require the presence of a financial director to authorize the action.
Key Points to Remember
- Consider how participants will work in a group setting.
- Consider travel times before you schedule a meeting
- Rearrange a meeting if people cannot attend.
- List speakers’ names by each item on the agenda.
- Attendees should be informed clearly of the date, time, place, and purpose of a meeting.
- Attendees should understand what they will have to contribute to the meeting.
- Background papers should be sent before the meeting to all the participants
- The venue must be suitably equipped and should be an appropriate size.
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