How to Kick Your Business Meetings Up a Notch

Meetings fall into two camps: the good and the bad.

Whilst bad meetings can make you feel like running out of the room screaming for your P45, good meetings can make you feel productive, energised, and ready for the next challenge.

There are 3 key requirements that a successful meeting must satisfy:

1. The objectives must be met

2. The meeting takes the minimum of time

3. Attendees feel that their time has been well spent

You will notice that two of these requirements include time. Time is the most valuable resource we have, and so the meeting should always be planned with almost military precision as to how long to spend on each agenda point. If a decision-maker is 15 minutes late for a meeting that has 8 attendees, two valuable hours of company time has been lost.

The subject matter of the meeting is almost inconsequential; it is how you approach your agenda’s objectives and your communication skills that will decide whether the outcome of your meeting is deemed a success or not.

Your agenda needs to be made with consideration to the following:

Objectives – what does your meeting need to accomplish?

Priorities – what absolutely must be covered so that you meet the objectives of the meeting?

Participants – who needs to attend the meeting to achieve your objectives?

Sequence – in what order do the priorities need to be discussed to achieve decisions?

Timing – how much time will be needed on each point?

Date and time – when will the meeting take place?

Place – where will the meeting take place?


Send out your meeting’s agenda and the documents that are to be discussed beforehand so that attendees have the opportunity to collate or review any information on which the meeting is based.

Depending on the length of the meeting, you need to think about refreshments. This is not so much about providing your colleagues with a drink and a biscuit, but it’s more to do with the important social side of having a cup of coffee – the social side that inspires and encourages relationship building.

Recent research from the USA’s MIT Media Lab has shown that the conversations had in a coffee break, enhance business collaborations and creativity. Consider your coffee machine rental as an investment that will pay dividends: productivity is shown to increase by up to 20% by giving everyone a coffee break at the same time.

Face-to-face conversations at meetings in a non-formal setting – those water cooler chats, coffee break catch-ups, and the squeezing into a table with strangers at lunch – all are a positive boost to collaboration and enhance team creativity.

The cost of a fifteen-minute coffee break is negligible compared to the benefits to your staff and the gains you will you can reap for the business. However, you must always remember that the quality of the coffee you provide is directly linked to how much an employee believes you care about them – you will be judged, so make sure that your coffee is fresh, organic and ethically sourced coffee, and wait for the magic to happen.