5 Ways to Step up Your Meeting Room Game

According to some reports, about 30 percent of the time employees spend in meeting rooms is unproductive. Obviously, when running a business, you want to ensure every second you and your staff members spend in the office helps achieve your goals and grow your business. This means that if you could step up your meeting room game and boost efficiency across the entire company, your business is bound to do better. But how exactly do you make your meetings better? Here are five ways you just can’t go wrong with.

Have an agenda

You’d probably be surprised by how many business owners walk into a meeting not having a prepared agenda. Just by deciding on what the purpose of the meeting is, you could end up cutting 80 percent of unproductive meeting time. Also, the more specific your agenda is, the more work you’ll get done in the meeting room. For example, don’t just name your meeting “Project X” as it doesn’t indicate what you and your employees are supposed to discuss. Instead, go for something like “Determining priorities for project X” and you’ll make it easier for everyone to prepare and actually come up with something during the meeting.

Start on time

Not a single second you and your employees spend in the meeting room should go to waste. To make sure this doesn’t happen, ask your team members to be punctual. In fact, advise them to show up at least five minutes before the meeting. If someone is late, don’t waste time starting all over again. Instead, have someone explain to them what you were talking about. In case they can’t catch up with the meeting, tell them you’ll update them after the meeting. Not only does this save everyone in the office time but it also allows you to fully focus on the topic that’s being discussed.

Get the design right

With open-plan offices gaining more and more attention, it’s absolutely necessary for every business to have a meeting room. That allows the rest of the team to keep working while a meeting takes place. However, not every meeting room is a good meeting room. For example, why rely on artificial lighting that causes stress and creates heat when you can let in natural light and help your team members get creative? Another smart thing to do is to introduce more technology into the office. Turn to experts in TV installation and make sure you don’t miss out on any news or special announcements.

Set strict time limits

We’ve all been to meetings that drag out without even accomplishing anything. You don’t want this to be the case with your meetings and that’s why setting strict time limits is recommended. Decide exactly how much time you’ll allocate to every topic and stick to it no matter what. Even if the agenda isn’t completed, have everyone go back to work and discuss the topic next time. Most meetings last about one hour or less. Some business owners even prefer holding meetings that don’t last longer than fifteen minutes. Of course, it all depends on the complexity of the project you’re dealing with.

Let employees move around

A recent study has shown that 71 percent of employees said they feel more focused after reducing sitting time by just one hour. No matter how comfortable your office furniture is, encouraging your employees to move around the office during the meeting is a good idea. This is especially the case during brainstorming sessions as some people tend to get more creative when walking around the room. You can even allow chewing gums and stress relief gadgets if you feel it can help your people get more creative. Basically anything other than scrolling through social media might be able to get their creative juices flowing.
Meetings are an inevitable aspect of running a business and making them more productive will help you move projects forward and work through problems together with your team. Start by following these five ways and every meeting you hold will be a success. Also, don’t forget to ask your team members if there’s anything they believe could improve your meetings even more.