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start: mark evans

I don't like meetings.

It probably because I spent a major chunk of my career as a reporter, a profession in which there are few meetings. Instead, we attended press conferences or conducted interviews with people that could easily be concluded by simply saying that you had no more questions to ask.

Now that I'm running my own business, meetings are a fact of life. To build relationships, make sales or get information about a project, meetings have to happen. It is a way to exchange ideas and information and reach agreements.

This isn't to suggest that I have grown fond of meetings. Most of them take too much time. This is not a good thing for anyone involved, particularly given many companies are still pretty lean and mean, so every hour in a meeting is a big deal.

What I have learned to do, however, is make sure that when meetings do happen, they are done in the most efficient and effective way possible. Here are some for the "best practices" that I attempt to apply.

  • Establish how long a meeting will last. Depending on what needs to be discussed, it is important to be clear on the length of a meeting. This creates a deadline everyone has to follow. What needs to be discussed gets discussed.
  • Set an agenda. Before going into a meeting, everyone needs to know what is going to be covered. This ensures the meeting stays focused, and that each item gets the attention it needs.
  • Make sure a meeting has a benevolent dictator. Someone has to make sure the agenda is being followed, and that the allotted time is being respected. This person is also responsible for making sure that the meeting doesn't go astray and off-topic.
  • Let people have their say but don't let an individual dominate the meeting or change the agenda. In other words, don't let your meeting be hijacked.
  • Make sure people are focused. This means making it clear that checking your mobile device for e-mail or answering the phone shouldn't happen. If you're in a meeting, be at the meeting.
  • End the meeting with action items. It's great to get together for a discussion, but effective meetings conclude with everyone having a good idea of what happens next. After all, meetings happen for a reason, so spending time together is all about making progress one way or another.

When done right, meetings can be productive affairs that let everyone move forward in the same direction. When done badly, meetings can be a complete waste of time.

Special to the Globe and Mail

Mark Evans is a principal with ME Consulting , a content and social media strategic and tactical consultancy that creates and delivers 'stories' for companies looking to capture the attention of customers, bloggers, the media, business partners, employees and investors. Mark has worked with three start-ups - Blanketware, b5Media and PlanetEye - so he understands how they operate and what they need to do to be successful. He was a technology reporter for more than a decade with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and the Financial Post. Mark is also one of the co-organizers of the mesh, meshUniversity and meshmarketing conferences.

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