Business Strategy Support --- Communication Consulting and Related Services --- Business Communication --- Meeting Communication
Conferences are where the brains of a company come together. It is a place where working people gather to rest and exchange information without doing customer service, production or clerical work. If you don't produce anything and just talk, it's just a waste of labor costs. How can you effectively and efficiently exchange information and make good decisions in meetings? How can meetings be meaningful and productive?
To make the meeting meaningful and productive, 1. Provide information in advance that can be conveyed by e-mail, etc., before the meeting; 2. Clarify the purpose and goals of the meeting; 3. Determine time limits and rules for how to speak and discuss; 4. Clearly record follow-up and deadlines in meeting minutes. It is said that four things are important: clear follow-up and delivery date in the minutes.
In some cases, you may be better to consider whether the meeting itself is necessary.
The important thing is to throw away the stereotypes of the past and find the best internal communication and decision-making method as a company.
It's a waste of time to turn meetings into mere exchanges of information. Communicate all the information you can before the meeting. And at the meeting, let's exchange opinions and discuss based on the information that has already been conveyed. With that alone, you can omit the time for just conveying information and the time for understanding information from the meeting time.
If you are going to hold a meeting, clarify the purpose and goals of the meeting, what the meeting is for, what kind of results you want to achieve. Before you hold a meeting, let everyone know the purpose and goals of the meeting. Whether or not everyone fully understands what the meeting is for and what kind of results it is aiming for will make a big difference in the outcome of the meeting.
Always set a time limit and rules for speaking and discussing in advance. The purpose of setting a time limit is to give the meeting a sense of purpose. Also, the flow of the meeting will change if you set rules such as not to talk about things unrelated to the agenda, not to give excuses why doing nothing, not to give negative opinions. Experiment with different rules and see what works best for you.
When the current issues and what needs to be done can be seen through the meeting, it is important to properly deal with the issues. For assignments, decide who will do it by when, and inform the relevant parties promptly after the meeting. Let's set a deadline and follow up so that the issue will not be neglected after the meeting is over. Whether or not you can follow up properly will make a big difference in the outcome of the meeting.