An estimate of the amount of time spent by the average CEO in meetings is approximately 60%. When planning or attending meetings, there are several ways to make the time spent in the meeting successful as well as profitable. After all, if meetings are not well planned, they can actually cost your organization money and the return on the investment of time actually can go into the red. The first thing that you need to determine if you are planning a meeting is if the information is best suited for delivery in a meeting or if a different venue would be more appropriate. If an email chain, memo or conference call would be more appropriate, one of these methods may be better employed. If you determine that a meeting is necessary and the proper venues of the information given, you need to select the date for your meeting. Having a few in mind is a good plan so that you can adjust if your site selection is not available on your first choice of dates. When you pick your site, making sure that the site has the facilities available for your meeting, such as adequate seating, catering or on-site food service, audio/visual equipment or accessibility to local airports if you will be hosting out of town sales people. When planning your meetings, it is important to have an agenda and to stick to it. However, as with any meeting, there will be instances arise in which a topic that is not covered on the agenda comes up. Allowing your meeting attendees to introduce topics that are not on the agenda can be done at the end of the meeting with a scheduled Q & A time. This allows your attendees to participate and gives you feedback for other meetings or follow-up training. If you are on a tight schedule and cannot address these topics, you can invite your colleagues to email you the topics that they want to address, jot down off-topic issues that arise or have another person take notes of these topics that come up. By letting everyone know that their ideas will be addressed, you show that participation is important. You also are given feedback for future memos, training or meetings. This also allows for brainstorms and a different perspective to be present and perhaps you will find the solution to your challenges with someone else's point of view.
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