Contents

Step 1: Organise people, places and times

Step 2: Prepare useful documents

Step 3: Participate with impact

Step 4: Host virtual meetings

Step 5: Use informal meetings wisely

Step 6: Adapt to meeting dynamics

Step 7: Run efficient, effective meetings

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Step 1
ORGANISE PEOPLE, PLACES AND TIMES

‘Did we make a decision in there?’ —US executive after a meeting in the UK

Five ways to succeed

 Be clear why the meeting is necessary.

 Only relevant people should attend the meeting.

 Book meeting rooms and facilities early.

 Keep to an agreed date and time.

 Send regular reminders to delegates.

Five ways to fail

 Be unclear about the purpose of the meeting.

 Don’t check and chase up attendance.

 Don’t check layout and organisation of the meeting room.

 Don’t send out invitations.

 Ignore the paperwork (agenda, minutes).

Welcome to the world of meetings. This is the activity which will take up the majority of your time at work. Up to 60 per cent, in fact. An estimated four million hours are spent in meetings every day in the UK alone.

So now you’ve realised this is likely to be your major work activity you need to know how to organise your time. The best way to do this is to use the time-honoured framework of five W’s and an H: Why, What, Who, When, Where and How. Let’s start with Why.

Why so many meetings? Good question. Meetings are like tribal gatherings. Work groups share a practical and emotional need to get together and discuss things and to exchange information.

You may not have much choice about which meetings you attend, but even meetings you think are irrelevant may be useful. You get the opportunity to observe how meetings work. Remember, don’t just focus on the topic, focus on the mechanics of the meeting (how it’s constructed and run) as well.

Meetings are the lifeblood of any organisation. They are the way information is shared in the group. They are the prime way of giving the work group a sense of belonging. This is why it’s worth:

 limiting the number of meetings

 having more focused meetings

 having shorter meetings.

Let’s unpack each item on that list.

Limit the number of meetings

Attend four two-hour meetings back to back and you’ll know why you need to limit the number of meetings. Your whole working day has gone – and you haven’t done any desk work yet. So you’re already behind. In addition, by the end of the fourth meeting, what you discussed in the first meeting is a distant memory.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to choose which meetings to attend, consider these criteria. Prioritise meetings which:

 directly concern you

 have information you need to know about

 cover responsibilities you have to report on

 contain people you need to meet or talk to

 deal with things which interest you or you can learn from.

For all the rest, take a view.

 Get a copy of the meeting invitation and the agenda. Does it meet one of your criteria above? If yes, try and go. If not, ask your line manager if you need to attend.

 Learn to discriminate. Decide which meetings will be important or helpful to you. For the others, explain your workload to your line manager and ask if you can be absent. Ask yourself constantly: ‘What is my purpose for being here? Could I use this time better, doing something else?’

 Most meetings can be summarised over the coffee machine. If you miss a meeting, ask a colleague: ‘Did I miss anything important?’

 If you did miss something important, get a copy of the minutes. If necessary and appropriate, follow up with your own views.

Types of meetings

Obviously, not all meetings are the same. The type of meeting will depend on its function. Let’s look at some of them.

Tribal gatherings

These are fairly rare. They tend to be semi-public occasions and involve the paramount chief and various sub-chiefs. Each clan in the tribe is involved in praise songs and ‘death to our enemy’ chants, awards are handed out and there is some hospitality on hand. If you’ve attended an annual school prize-giving or sports day you’ll know what we’re talking about. In a company it’s usually called the AGM (Annual General Meeting), new product launch, or something like that. Why go? You go for the jamboree and the hospitality. It’s also a good chance to network, and if you’re to be honoured with a prize like ‘employee of the year’, it’s probably worth a look-in.

Weekly or monthly updates

These are usually project team and departmental meetings. Their function is to update on activities, check progress against deadlines, allocate responsibilities, troubleshoot problems and make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing. Why go? You need to attend these. They’re important. If you can’t attend, make sure people know beforehand. ‘No shows’ are not well viewed. It’s a sign of disinterest or failure of responsibility. Neither are recommended qualities for promotion. So remember: if you can’t go, let the chair know. Beforehand.

Performance reviews

Performance reviews are another type of meeting. You often have to prepare paperwork, and sometimes the outcome of this meeting affects your salary, bonuses and training opportunities.

Brainstorms

These are single topic discussions with an open agenda where all ideas are welcome. The rule (not always observed) is that any idea, no matter how far-fetched, is worth voicing. The aim is to get ideas for future action, often in new areas of company development. Why go? They’re lively and fun and they help you get a feeling for other members of the group: how they think; what their priorities are. If you have something useful to contribute it’s also a great way to make an impression. One word of advice: never speak first. You’re better off keeping your powder dry until you know which way the wind is blowing. Then when you do speak, in favour or in opposition to what others are saying, you’ll make a stronger impact.

General meetings

If these don’t sound relevant to you, avoid them whenever you can. They can range from how to economise on coffee machines to saving paper or other office matters. Enough said.

Shorter meetings

Let’s practise what we preach and have a brief summary of shorter meetings. Here are three ideas:

 Meeting at 10.10 Most people expect ten o’clock. They wander in a few minutes late, get coffee or tea, find their seat, complain that there are no biscuits, and catch up on gossip. So the first ten minutes or so is actually wasted time. That’s why some meeting organisers start their meetings at an odd time. They start at ten minutes past ten, ignore latecomers and don’t recap for them. They get on with the agenda and finish when they say they will. If there is anything not discussed, they do it in a private meeting later or put it back to the next meeting.

 Stand-up meetings That’s right. No one sits down. After half an hour or less, people are sagging – a great way to shorten a meeting, though not very comfortable.

 Timed agenda Some meeting organisers put a duration against each point on the agenda, e.g. holiday time announcement (5 mins). This used to be very popular but has fallen out of favour now. Still useful, though, if only as an indicator.

If you think short meetings are impossible, look at the agenda of the President of the United States: Affairs of State may be concluded in ten minutes. No time for chat there.

Other meetings

Not all meetings take place in an office. If you work in a factory or department store, team meetings and staff announcements will often be held on the factory or sales floor. How are they different? Most meetings will be shorter. Most people will be standing up. They will usually be run by the department head, team leader or, maybe, trade union official.

The atmosphere is likely to be much more informal. People will just stand around the speaker. Once the announcement is made, people can ask questions. Then, when it’s over, everyone simply goes back to work.

In many factories and department stores, team ‘huddles’ are popular. These are informal meetings at the beginning or end of the day to remind the team of important points and boost morale.

There’s a last type of meeting that takes place in public. This is when senior members of staff address the troops on more general policy issues. These might take place in the cafeteria or in another public space. Do go. It might be your only chance to see the boss in person!

Meetings start with an invitation. The invitation is usually an email, sent round to people to say the meeting will take place. The invitation will normally state:

 Date

 Time (start and finish)

 Location (room/building, check the size/capacity of the room)

 Participants in the meeting

 Topic (what the key aim of the meeting is, e.g. management meeting, conference planning, work allocation on the shop floor, customer service procedure, etc.)

 Contact person (the person arranging the meeting)

If the agenda is finalised, it’s a very good idea to attach it to the invitation.

See Step 2 for more on invitations.

One of the key questions in any meeting is who should attend. There is a golden rule: as few as possible. And only those relevant to the outcome. Allowing everybody in is rarely effective in a meeting. You end up with dozens of ideas, hundreds of disagreements, no decisions and no clear way forward.

What are the outcomes of this approach?

 time wasted

 disaffected people

 a demotivated department

It’s far better to decide what you want to achieve and who you think will help you achieve it, as well as those who might oppose it, though you need to listen to them. They often think of things you forget or warn you of possible dangers. Get these people in the meeting and focus on them.

How many people should attend? Research suggests that the optimum number of people in any meeting is five or seven: an odd number of participants allows a majority view to be reached. Many directors hold pre-meetings, almost chats, with trusted colleagues (and opponents) to review options and strategies before taking the issue to the larger meeting.

As you’d expect, if we spend 60 per cent of our time in meetings, there’s a lot of research into the right time for the meeting. Believe it or not, it varies. Most people will argue 10 or 11 a.m., when people are fresh. Almost everybody agrees that 2 p.m. after lunch is not the ideal time, but many meetings are held at 4 or 5 p.m. and they work quite well as ‘end of day’ team round-ups.

But you have to check availability times. As an example, the contract hours of the British employees in a French company in London were 8 a.m. to 5.45 p.m. The French would arrive at about 9.30, have a decent lunch from 12.45 to 2 p.m. and then leave the office around 7 or 7.30 p.m. As a result, they held their team meetings at 6 p.m.

This was like a French red rag to a British bull. This wasn’t just inconsiderate. It was a plot to make the British stay late at the office or cut them out of the decision-making loop. Office politics at its worst!

In fact, it was just a mistake. The French simply didn’t think. Once they realised the problem, they brought the team meeting forward to 4.30. Harmony reigned once again.

Punctuality is important in UK business. It’s important to be on time for meetings. If you think you might be late, always phone. Say you will be a bit later than you need. It’s much better to call and say, ‘I’ll be 20 minutes late’, and arrive earlier.

There are lots of examples like the French one, especially in companies with employees from different countries. ‘Who’s holding a meeting on my national day?’ ‘Who wants me to work on Sunday?’ (Not uncommon in Middle Eastern companies, where the holy day is Friday.) ‘Who wants me to go to a meeting at six o’clock in Ramadan?’ Sensitivity to issues like these helps employees feel considered and makes them more willing to come to meetings.

Normally, meetings conform to the holiday conventions of the UK. However, in our increasingly multinational working environment, it’s important to acknowledge others’ festivals and celebrations. The Chinese New Year is a good example of this.

Finding out about alternative dates can be a challenge. A good way to organise a meeting is to use a time chart.

Name | Date 6th June Time 11.00 a.m. | Date 7th June Time 11.00 a.m. | Date 17th June Time 11.00 a.m.
John | * | * | *
Hilary |  |  |
Pia |  |  |
Barry |  |  |

The time chart is a table with names of invitees, dates and time. The organiser circulates it to colleagues. Notice there is an asterisk against the three dates. This indicates that the organiser, John, is free. The others do the same and when there is a day where all the slots are filled, then that is the day of the meeting. Simple but effective. Most computers have programs designed to help you arrange meetings and view people’s availability.

What happens if the spaces aren’t filled by everyone? Try again. It may take two or three attempts.

Where to hold a meeting poses two problems. One is whether to hold it inside or outside the office. The other is room and layout.

Office or elsewhere?

Most people think the right place to hold a meeting is around a table in an office. But meetings can take place anywhere. Some take place in the break-out areas in offices (the more informal areas with sofas and bean bags). See Step 5 for more information on informal meetings. Others take place in hotel lobbies or in restaurants over lunch or dinner. There are also away-days that are purposely arranged so they are off-site, i.e. away from the office, often in a business centre, so that people can get away from their day job and think about bigger picture issues.

If the groundwork for a meeting is done in a more relaxing environment, the formal bit, the confirmation, if you like, can be done in the office.

The office isn’t always the best place to start a series of meetings. It is usually the best place to finish them.

One of the key advantages of meetings outside the office is that participants are not so likely to get sucked into everyday office business. For example, if training sessions are held in the office training room there is a constant temptation to nip back to the office to check messages and make phone calls during the breaks. Obviously, participants can still access messages on their mobiles or laptops but off-site training means the interruptions will be fewer and briefer.

Meeting room organisation and layout

Dedicated meeting rooms should be OK for your meeting. But do check. They may be festooned with wires for conference calls or have computers on every desk.

Check the room you’ve booked is the right size and has enough chairs. And also check it doesn’t have too many chairs. Twenty chairs round a table when you have a meeting of five may make the place feel a bit empty. A bit like a restaurant with too many waiters and no guests. Check what’s in the room and around the walls. Is there anything you’d prefer your meeting attendees not to see? Also check the facilities. Is the space clean? Are the rubbish bins empty? Is the whiteboard clean? Is there a flipchart? Do you need data projection facilities?

When you’ve got your room, check the layout. Different kinds of layouts work for different kinds of activity. See here for the different layouts.

Boardroom

When you see the US government around the table in the White House in Washington DC or the Cabinet room at Number 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence and office in London, you’re looking at a boardroom layout. It’s good for limited discussion and creating a collective atmosphere.

The leader or convenor of a meeting is often called the chair (a unisex term).

Here’s a useful tip. If you want to get noticed in a meeting, make sure you are within the eyeline of the meeting leader. Just opposite or slightly to the right or left facing them is probably best.

Circle

Circles are for togetherness and for exchange. People in a circle, without tables, are favoured by ‘self-development’ groups. It’s supposed to encourage the exchange of personal information in a more relaxed environment. Going back to our meetings-as-tribal-gatherings analogy, American Indian pow-wows (discussions) were traditionally held in a circle. Traditional African village discussions are held in a circle under a tree in the village ‘square’, often with the leader in the middle holding a shell or other symbol giving him/her the right to speak. The Roman Senate sat in a circle and the United Nations and the EU debating chambers each form a semi-circle. Circles and semi-circles stress togetherness. Rows facing each other stress opposition – hence the layout of the British House of Commons.

Horseshoe

The horseshoe also encourages discussion, but also allows more space and freedom. Horseshoes work well for brainstorming and open discussion and have the advantage that all participants can see each other and address each other, with no one in a superior position.

Cabaret

Cabaret layouts work well for meetings where there are 12 or more participants, and they are seated around tables for three or four, a bit like tables in a nightclub – hence the name cabaret. A cabaret layout allows for lots of group work and reporting back.

Theatre

For large groups, sitting in rows might be the best way to proceed. It’s difficult to have group discussion in a theatre layout though. It’s best for listening to a presentation and asking and answering questions afterwards (Q&A).

Facing rows

Avoid this one if you can. It promotes opposition, as mentioned earlier. The British parliamentary system is based on government versus opposition. So it’s noisy and, in a fairly friendly British way, antagonistic.

The same occurs in business, but it’s not always friendly. Sometimes, this layout is dictated by the shape of the room and the number of attendees. The danger is that if people are opposite each other, they will naturally sit with those they agree with and opposite those they don’t.

As an example: a firm had contractual difficulties with one of its affiliates. A meeting was arranged to try to resolve the problem. Unfortunately, the meeting room had a table with two rows of chairs facing each other. The contractor and her team sat on one side and the affiliate and his team on the other. The atmosphere was stiff and cold. Points of agreement were difficult to find.

Then the contractor had a brainwave. She suggested they take a break, and during the break she changed the meeting room. The new room had a round table! Immediately, there was a more positive atmosphere, and after more discussion both sides reached an agreement.

What had changed? The meeting leader was convinced of one thing. Sitting round a table in a circle diminished the atmosphere of confrontation and increased the willingness to cooperate.

Meeting room layouts

As a final thought, have you ever watched The Apprentice? Think what you’ve learned about meeting organisation and room layout – how does it apply to what you’ve seen on the show? At first, it’s lovey dovey. Lord Sugar arrives in his Bentley. He stands in front of the teams, mixes them up and gives them the task. Fifty minutes later, it’s another story. He sits at a desk in front of a frosted glass door, flanked by his cohorts. Opposite him in two rows sit or stand the two teams. There aren’t enough seats for everyone.

It’s a mixture of theatre style, in this case more like a classroom, and facing rows. The two teams aren’t actually facing each other, but it feels very oppositional – almost like a courtroom. The layout seems designed for maximum superiority (Lord Sugar) and maximum humiliation (the contestants).

This is nothing to do with Lord Sugar, but everything to do with the production values which, Big Brother style, try to create tension and conflict in order to build audiences. The age of the gladiator is not dead! But it’s exactly the wrong way to set up and run a meeting.

Imagine if the approach was cooperative and aimed at showing everyone at their best. People would sit next to, not opposite each other. They would discuss in a circle, a horseshoe or cabaret style, not in facing rows. Lord Sugar and his cohorts would sit among the contestants, not apart from them.

Layout determines whether the atmosphere will be collaborative or confrontational.

So let’s imagine you are asked to organise a meeting. What? No! That’ll never happen to you! Well, actually it might. An intern was asked to organise the weekly management meeting. Why? It was a good way to test her organising skills and her willingness to take responsibility and use her initiative. She came through with flying colours and, as a result of this and her other work, got an offer of a permanent job.

What did she do? She used the framework. Five W’s and an H:

 WHY? First she asked why the meeting was necessary. What was it intended to achieve?

 WHAT? Then she checked the topic. That would go on the invitation.

 WHO? Then she asked who needed to be invited, names and job titles. She double-checked these. (Her life would have been a misery if she had got them wrong!)

 WHEN? Her line manager suggested a time, but she needed to check alternatives. She used a time chart to check everyone’s availability and found a date and time that suited everyone.

 WHERE? She had to decide whether to hold the meeting in the office or outside the office. In the event, her line manager preferred the office. So she booked a room, checked it, moved the tables and chairs around, ensured there was a data projector and booked tea, coffee, biscuits and a sandwich lunch from the canteen.

 HOW? What needs to happen?

Having decided on the Why, What, Who, When and Where, the intern finally had to deal with the How. What did she need to do?

1 Book a room.

2 Send out the invitations.

3 Chase up anyone who hadn’t replied.

4 Circulate the agenda and any papers to be ‘tabled’ (discussed).

5 Chase up anybody who hadn’t replied (there’ll always be a few).

6 Check the room was OK for the meeting. Raid the stationery cupboard (for any pens/paper the participants will need).

7 Telephone attendees to remind them.

8 Make a note of those who would be absent or would have to leave early.

9 Prepare the agenda (see Step 2).

How does this apply to you?

As the intern realised, organising a meeting is both a challenge and an opportunity. If you get the opportunity, how do you meet the challenge? First, find out what has been done before. Ask more experienced colleagues or your line manager.

Secondly, think of your own experience. If you’ve participated in meetings before, is there anything you can use? Thirdly, don’t worry about inexperience. This is an opportunity to learn. It’s also an opportunity to show you can take responsibility and show initiative.

Lastly, after the meeting, take time to reflect. What have you learned from the experience? What will you do, say, and above all, think in the future? Learning to reflect on your experience and learn lessons for the future is one of the most important things you can do as an employee.

Key take-aways

Think about the things you will take away from Step 1 and how you will implement them.

Topic | Take-away | Implementation
How to assess whether meetings are relevant | • Not all meetings are relevant. Some are just routine. | • Ask my line manager to prioritise.
How to make the most of meetings you have to attend |  |
How to recognise types of meeting |  |
How to keep meetings shorter |  |
How to write a good meeting invitation |  |
How to decide who to invite |  |
How to check availability |  |
How to make sure the room is suitable |  |
How to organise a meeting practically |  |
How to manage what you have learned |  |

Step 2
PREPARE USEFUL DOCUMENTS

‘Whoever controls the minutes, controls the meeting!’ — UK finance manager

Five ways to succeed

 Always have an agenda.

 Communicate the aim and objectives.

 Organise the discussion documents for the meeting.

 Know how to present your own ideas.

 Take and present minutes to suit the meeting.

Five ways to fail

 Assume the meeting can run by itself.

 Waste time by not organising/attaching discussion papers.

 Fail to ask someone to take the minutes.

 Write down what everyone says and then try to reproduce it.

 Forget to check minutes before circulation.

Good meetings depend on planning and successful planning depends partly on good documentation.

Four key documents will contribute to a successful meeting. They are:

 The invitation

 The agenda

 Supporting papers and discussion documents

 The minutes

The invitation makes sure you get the right people in the right place on the right day at the right time.

The agenda is your roadmap to success. It is the path to meeting the goals and objectives of your meeting. It ensures you clarify your meeting objectives and it identifies the process you need to go through to achieve them with the relevant stakeholders.

The supporting papers and discussion documents provide the necessary background to any discussion, but need to be presented in an unambiguous and accessible way.

The minutes are not just a record of the meeting. They are an action plan going forward.

Clear, relevant and action-oriented action points provide the platform for the next steps.

There should be a clear progression from the agenda to the minutes. The order of the minutes should reflect the order of the agenda and should clearly relate to the subject headings and issues raised in each item. If it doesn’t, you risk confusion.

The invitation

When you prepare an invitation, you tell attendees about the meeting: where they need to go, what date and what time.

Sounding pro: Meeting invitations

Here’s an example of an invitation:

To:

From:

Re: Team meeting

Dear Colleagues,

We are holding two meetings in May to discuss reorganisation of the department. It is extremely important that everyone in the team attends. We are proposing two dates: May 17th or May 24th at 1 p.m. in the canteen. Please let me know by May 6th which date or dates you are available for.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Sara Leboeuf

HR Manager

Why is this invitation successful?

 It’s clear – it states the type of meeting.

 It explains – it doesn’t take for granted that the participants know.

 It specifies attendance – it says who should come.

 It offers alternative time slots.

 It offers a choice of dates.

 It’s polite and it makes clear requests with a clear deadline.

 It shows authority – the sender states her job title at the end.

The invitation also creates a record. Do people need a record? If you’ve got back-to-back meetings or very few meetings, yes, you do. Knowing where you have to be and when is all important.

 Date

Write it how you like. Some people prefer May 6th 2013. Some like 6th May 2013. Many people, even in the UK, use the US form 6 May 2013 or May 6 2013.

You may see this: 6/7/13 (the 6th of July 2013), but be careful, as in America and other parts of the world, the month comes first, like this: 7/6/13 (the 6th of July 2013) not, as it looks to the British (the 7th of June 2013).

If in doubt, copy the format from a previous meeting.

 Time

Just to be clear, many companies now use the 24-hour clock and write the time as part of a 24-hour period. So 09:05 is five minutes past nine a.m. and 12:05 is five minutes past 12 o’clock midday. Alternatively, you can use a.m./p.m.

It’s important to note that people from different cultures have different attitudes to time. Some are much more tolerant of delays and lateness than others. The UK, by and large, is an ‘on time’ culture. It’s much better to arrive five minutes early for a meeting than five minutes late. Also, if you’re going to be late you should ring and advise as early as possible.

 Location

This is straightforward: building, address (if needed) and room number, e.g.

Room 101 Edinburgh Building 3 East Side Nottingham

Be careful you get numbers and addresses right. If the meeting is in your office building, check the room booked corresponds to the room number on the invitation and agenda.

If the meeting is off-site (i.e. away from the office), check the directions (they are sometimes called joining instructions) are easy to follow. Do get it right. It’s all too easy to send people to the wrong room or even to the wrong building on the wrong side of town!

Check and double-check the details are right. If you’re in the same building, nip along and check. Fifteen minutes spent now might save hours of wasted time and frustration later – for you and the participants. After all, you don’t want to end up on the roof!

Requesting items for inclusion

Sometimes the invitation may include a request for items to be discussed by the participants. Imagine this situation. You had an action point from the last meeting that you haven’t been able to complete. So you want to have further discussion in the next meeting. The best way to do this may be to put it on the agenda for the meeting.

It’s worth asking all participants if they want to include this or perhaps another item. You can either do this when you send out the invitation or else in a separate email, once the meeting date has been agreed.

Date: All addressees: Subject: Agenda items for meeting on 28th March

Dear all, Please let me have any agenda items for the meeting on 28th March by 5 p.m. on 25th March.

Thank you very much. Tom Hadfield

Types of meeting

Before we go on to the next piece of documentation, the agenda, let’s make a distinction between two types of meeting. The first is the regular meeting. This is a meeting of a project team or department which takes place at regular intervals, weekly or monthly. The aim of the meeting is primarily to update on progress and troubleshoot problems. This is the kind of meeting where the meeting leader may request items for inclusion, as above.

The second is a ‘one-off’ meeting to discuss a particular topic or issue. In this case, there has been no ‘last meeting’ and therefore it’s unlikely, though not impossible, that the meeting leader will request items for inclusion.

Agendas are the single organising principle of a business meeting. They define what needs to be discussed and in what order. They are therefore the starting point for any successful meeting, and the lack of one is the main starting point for an unsuccessful meeting. But they also have another function. They help you organise your thoughts. When you write an agenda, automatically you think about what you want to agree on. These are the aims and objectives of the meeting.

If you look around, you’ll see business people in informal meetings in coffee shops, cafés and restaurants. Even for informal meetings they’ll ask the question, ‘What do we need to discuss?’ And they will scribble the points to discuss on a napkin or piece of paper. It may not look like it, but that’s an agenda.

The way to focus a meeting is through the agenda. Agendas help you think more constructively and more logically about what you want to achieve. It’s not just about organising your thoughts. It’s also about deciding what order you want to present them in – the progression. Going into a meeting without a clear agenda is like going into a meeting without a focus.

Agendas – what to include

Agendas are often included with the invitation. They normally include the following information:

Details of meeting, date, time, location

See here and here.

Participants

This is a list of who is expected at the meeting, the participants. At the very least, write their names, but some agendas include job titles too.

Once again, your policy should be to look at a previous agenda and check how people are described. Use that as your guide. Expect at least the full first name and family name, e.g. Barry Tomalin.

In more formal meetings, titles may be attached, e.g. Mr Barry Tomalin, M.A. However, check gender. Is Hilary Baker a man or a woman? Check company policy. Mentioning gender titles may be politically incorrect.

In some cases, job titles may also be added, e.g. Alicia Jones, R&D Coordinator EMEA.

So here is your next problem, acronyms. What does an R&D Coordinator do? And what is EMEA? R&D is Research and Development, in other words, a researcher. EMEA defines the region of responsibility. It stands for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Part of your background research is to note the names (people you may never meet but you are expected to know who they are), their job titles and the acronyms that describe their areas of responsibility. Information may be found on the company intranet. Never be afraid to ask about this, especially during your first few months in the company. But don’t be surprised – they may not know either!

Apologies for absence

Some people don’t turn up for meetings and they don’t tell anyone beforehand. In Britain, in particular, this is not well viewed, and in France they call it absence sauvage: ‘savage absence’. If you can’t make a meeting, you should always email or phone in good time. If it’s a short notice cancellation or delay, make sure you phone.

If by any chance you miss a meeting and don’t inform the meeting leader, then you should apologise by phone or email as soon as possible afterwards.

On the agenda, absence is noted like this:

Apologies

Barry Tomalin

Or:

Apologies received Barry Tomalin

Or:

Apologies received from Barry Tomalin

If you’ve sent your apologies in advance, then you should be on the list to receive the minutes of the meeting. If for any reason you don’t receive them, then you should ask for them.

Minutes of last meeting

For a regular meeting, when you send out the invitation to the next meeting, you should usually attach the minutes of the previous meeting. That way everyone can check what has and hasn’t been done since the last meeting.

Agenda items

Each item on the agenda has a title, for example:

1. Project update (Claire) – (7 minutes), Paper 2.1

Check company practice in the presentation of items.

- Is an ‘item owner’ listed? In this case, Claire introduces the update, followed by discussion.

- Is there a suggested time? This proposes a theoretical duration for the presentation and discussion. It helps the meeting leader keep track of time, so he/she can shorten the discussion or cut another item lower down the list. Also, it helps the item owner, Claire, know how long she is expected to take.

- Are there supporting papers? If so, it may be useful to list these so that participants know which paper refers to which item.

The number of items on the agenda depends on the time available and the number of issues to be discussed. But an agenda of seven items in a 60-minute meeting would be ample.

Supporting papers may be of different types. They might include financial statements, product specifications and descriptions, and position papers on issues of policy or strategy. They can be added to the agenda and circulated with it as hard or soft copy. Be sure to have hard copies on hand for participants who haven’t printed out the soft copy!

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