The essential guide to effective meetingsGet your meetings back on track

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The essential guide to effective meetings2

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Introduction

The problem with meetings

A better way to have meetings

Customer recommendations

Structuring better meetings

Build an effective agenda

Contact us

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Introduction

Meetings are an essential part of working life. They form part of our day-to-day routine and can cover everything from the business critical to the most mundane.

It doesn’t matter what sector you work in or what size organization you work for, meetings will play a huge part in your working life from beginning to end and are a fundamental part of any business. The amount of information that you need to prepare for a meeting can be vast, equally can the amount of information and actions you take away from a meeting.

A good meeting can produce ideas that set organizations on the path to greatness, however most meetings are not given the chance to nurture such greatness. By embracing technology and utilising the systems you already have in place, you can take back control of your meetings and make sure that your organization thrives.

Technology has changed every aspect of our lives and it’s inconceivable for most people to think about doing their job without the aid of technology in some form. But as technology is advancing and enabling people to do their jobs more efficiently, why hasn’t technology been utilised to improve the most basic parts of working life; meetings?

The essential guide to effective meetings

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If you’ve caught yourself daydreaming during meetings then you are not alone. Far from it in fact. In research conducted by eShare, 91% of people surveyed admitted to daydreaming during meetings, 73% did other work and a staggering 39% admitted to having fallen asleep!

Whether you are sitting on a board of directors for a multi-national organization, or if it’s a 3 man department meeting for a start-up, the panic that washes over you when you’re asked your opinion on a subject that you haven’t fully listened to is immense. You can only wonder as to how many critical business decisions have been made in such situations.

Businesses cannot run without effective and efficient meetings, but we have too many meetings, and in particular, too many meetings without a clear agenda. Our time is very precious to us, and is a commodity that should be respected and given the value that it deserves, so why then are we being inundated with meetings that serve little or no purpose at all?

“Meetings are an elephant in the room within business – many of them are inefficient, take too long to prepare for and don’t run smoothly when they are under way”

Alister EsameShare CEO

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On average you can expect to spend more than one working day a week preparing for and attending meetings

The average manager having 62 meetings every week. Across a 40 year career this adds up to a total of 17,740 hours – two entire years of your life, or around 10 years of work time. In the research conducted by eShare we discovered that 50% of the time spent in meetings is considered wasted time- a whole year of your life wasted.

The other thing to consider is that this wasted time is also on the company dime. When putting a monetary value to this, we reach a staggering 37 billion dollars ($37,000,000,000) on wasted salary costs because of ineffective and ill-prepared meetings.

It’s not just the people who attend the meetings who are affected, what about the people who are responsible for organizing them?

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There is a better way…Reduce Costs

• No paper• No wasted time

searching for emails or documents before the meeting

• Training and administrative costs mitigated due to overall product ease-of-use and functionality

• Office365 integration saves time in assessment of vendor security measures

Improved Security

• MeetingSquared is secure and sits within your existing SharePoint environment

• Mobile Apps ensure content available anytime

• All data resides in your chosen SharePoint environment

• eShare is ISO27001 accredited

Improved productivity and engagement

• Collaborative preparation for meetings

• More structured meetings

• A record of your meetings to help improve transparency and accountability

• Complementary to Office365 solutions such as Skype for Business

• Mobile Apps allow users to engage around content instantaneously through shared annotations and presenter view

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There is no such thing as a standard working day anymore, the prospect of a 9-5 to some would be a dream.

The world is getting smaller and organizations deal with people around the globe, meaning that the working day is being stretched out of shape.

Trying to arrange meetings across different time zones and with users having different devices and operating system is a constant battle and one that many struggle to overcome.

Even if you have managed to organize your meeting, inviting attendees and distributing the documents needed for the meeting is enough of a struggle and the prospect of having a clear audit trail for messages, actions and amendments is a pipedream.

Having a structured agenda for a meeting is essential for keeping a meeting on track. Without this, people will start running their own agendas and steering the meeting off-course to a subject that they want to discuss, rather than the core purpose of the meeting.

Agendas not only keep the meeting on track, but also on time, helping to reduce the risk of the 39% who admitted to sleeping in meetings becoming repeat offenders.

If we know all of the problems with organizing and attending meetings, then why have people not acted upon setting them right - is there a solution?

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When preparing for meetings, MeetingSquared allows you to –

• Build your agenda-led meetings • Compile a complete PDF pack or

OneNote pack for each meeting• Instantaneously publish and make

meeting packs available to attendees• Manage all documents, actions, votes

and updates and send updates to your meeting participants

MeetingSquared meeting participants are able to –

• Annotate documents using the highlighter, sticky note and pen• Work on/off-line• Link through to a SharePoint environment• Print/email annotated documents/agenda from the applications (client

configurable)• Easily navigate annotations through the annotation list• Access past meetings and minutes • Make notes against agenda items• Print or email the agenda with notes• Create an initial Minutes document from notes set next to the agenda• Share annotations and use a presenter view through the iPad and Android

apps

MeetingSquared is the only complete solution in the industry that provides a seamless and secure platform for meeting management…all with very limited training required.

For meeting groups, MeetingSquared allows you to –

• Access your meeting files remotely on any device

• Streamline collaborative workflow• Store and view relevant information

housed in a SharePoint site• Create, allocate and manage

pre/post meeting actions

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Don’t just take our word for it

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Maryland Skilled Immigrant Taskforce

“There was nothing in the app store with a feature-set as comprehensive as MeetingSquared. I have spent many years working in technology and know a good product when I see one.

“People work in different organizations and different departments, they are not all desk-based and all use different types of mobile device and operating systems. A good number of the taskforce are on the road and don’t always see emails when they come in, so it is easy to miss emails relating to an upcoming meeting. But MeetingSquared means those important emails can be highlighted, meaning people stay on top of everything they need to. It also works across organizations and different email addresses, a quality that many apps do not have.

“Users in a non-profit have differing experiences, abilities and expectations with technology, which means you have to tread carefully when you introduce a new tool or platform, but MeetingSquared’s ease of use and ability to make the meeting process much smarter, has meant that all our users have stated how much they value it.”

Ronald M Jennings

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Exeter College

“Whilst meeting documents were reaching our members in a timely fashion, it could be difficult to access them when working nationally or internationally.

In addition, if we posted papers out and they were not at home, they might be sent back to the sorting office, which would cause delays in them being reviewed. With twenty plus packs being printed for governors and senior management, the printing and postage costs were also a huge concern. We estimated printing and postage costs were around £5,000 – £6,000 each year and by sending these ahead of a meeting, we were risking some of the data, particularly the financials, being out of date by the time the meeting came around.

The other e-solution providers we looked at did not meet our data protection requirements. After just one hours training, I was able to set up the online papers and after initially trialling MeetingSquared with the audit committee, alongside having a hard copy of the meeting packs, we found none of the members actually used their hard copy, and really took to using the solution on their iPads.

“We have been exceptionally pleased with the response we’ve had from users.”

Barbara Sweeney

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Define the agenda

Steer clear of any subjects where one person is likely to dominate the conversation without input from others. Instead, focus on items which will invite discussion from all members to help come to conclusions that everyone can agree on faster.More information on how to build an effective agenda to come…

With inboxes getting flooded with messages and papers coming in from every direction, it’s easy to see why so many business managers opt for some form of meeting software.

How many times have you found yourself searching back through emails for the conversations leading up to a meeting and hunting down documents in file explorer, then finding the conference call numbers and/or other key details in the calendar entry.

Instead, using software to structure meeting information, attendees can focus on the most important aspect of a meeting; the content.

Stick to a time schedule

There is no universal length of time for meetings, but people often default to an hour, which may result in rushed and unsuccessful finishes. Meetings become messy and ineffective when there are multiple conversations happening at once. To avoid any confusion, plan a set time you will spend discussing each topic. Make sure everyone has the relevant documentation beforehand so they can prepare. If the discussion goes over the designated time, allow for 10 minutes during the end of each meeting for these issues to be resolved.

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Don’t just rely on your team members to recall what was discussed in a previous meeting – no one will remember the same version. Minutes should be taken and stored correctly for easy reference, as well as a formalised action process.

This way you will be able to track the progress your company is making and it will be a lot easier to identify how best to resolve issues.

For more seamless, effective meetings, investing in meeting management software such as MeetingSquared can make a big difference. It will help you by providing a structured agenda, to which documents, links and votes can be added to the relevant agenda items, and will help you keep track of the actions and minutes from previous meetings. Saving both time and money, this software enhances productivity every time your team meets.

The essential guide to effective meetings

Keep track of previous meetings

Invest in meeting management software

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Setting an agenda is crucial to the running of any meeting.

They outline why the meeting is being held so participants know what to expect and what to prepare, but also keep the meeting on track and on time. But how do you build an effective agenda?

How to build an effective agenda

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Set a clear goal for the meeting

Before you start writing your agenda, ask yourself the question; “What is the goal of this meeting?”

The objective of the meeting should be concise and clear not only telling the attendees exactly what to expect, but also allowing you to structure your agenda to cover the most important topics first.

Assign times per topic

Let the content dictate the length assigned to each topic. If you’ve booked out a meeting room for an hour but only have 2 short agenda items, then run to that, don’t feel you have to pad out the meeting - remember shorter meetings will keep attendees’ attention better.

Assigning each topic a set time period allows you to be strict and keep your meeting on track. If the topic is over-running but with no clear decision in site, then move on and either return to it at the end or forward that meeting agenda item to the next meeting.

The essential guide to effective meetings

Include any pertinent information

By attaching all of the documents needed for the meeting to each agenda item, attendees are left in no doubt which documents they need to read and also which document refers to which topic. Include the presenter for each agenda item so they can prepare and all attendees know what to expect.

The more information you can give people before a meeting, the more effective that meeting and the meeting members will become.

Create the agenda with plenty of time to spare

Ensuring you’ve left enough time to prepare and send out the agenda for your meeting is essential. Hastily prepared agendas are likely to miss some required information, may contain out-of-date documents and may not leave enough time for any amends.

Sending the agenda in plenty of time also allows the attendees to review all of the documents, which will mean they are better informed and will have more valuable input at the meeting.

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Trying to organise meetings without meeting management software can be done, but should it?

MeetingSquared can help make organizing and running your meetings smarter. By moving your meetings onto a digital platform, you are streamlining the full life cycle of your meetings.I think this doesn’t make sense. If they believe that meetings are already effective then why should they change anything.

Meetingscan bemoreeffective

If you want your organization to become more efficient and reduce the time and money wasted on ineffective meetings,

contact us now.

The essential guide to effective meetings

+44 (0) 8452 007 829

www.eshare.net