Make Your Meetings More Productive

Making meetings more productive and effective is a lot easier than one might think. Here are some ways to get the most of out of your meetings ...

1. Have an agenda:

The worst thing you can do is set up a meeting with the intention of just getting people together to talk. I know whenever I’m in a meeting and the facilitator (or person who set up the meeting) begins with “I set this up so we could all get in the same room and talk about XYZ,” that I should take Mrs. Gump’s advice and run like the wind.

Before inviting people to any meeting, make sure you have a list of goals or outcomes that you expect from the meeting (which may or may not choose to share with the group). Have a list of topics to cover and estimate how much time you should spend on each topic.

2. If you can accomplish your goals with an email or memo, then don’t have the meeting:

Some people like to have meetings for the sake of having meetings - I personally think they feel some sort of power by being able to drag people together. Avoid this temptation because the meeting itself, along with all the preparation work, takes valuable time away from more productive tasks for both you and the meeting invitees.

3. Only invite people that need to be there:

Sometimes we feel the need to bring everyone remotely related to the topic of discussion to a meeting which results in most of the people in the room twiddling their thumbs while they await the 5% of the discussion that pertains to them. If someone only needs to be part of 25% of the discussion or less, either speak with them before the meeting so they don’t have to take time out of their busy day to attend or go over their part during the beginning of the meeting. If you find that there are several people that have just a little to contribute to the meeting, you may be better off having a quick conversation and sending out an email with what you’ve learned from your conversation as opposed to having the meeting.

Also, if someone has nothing to contribute to what will be discussed in the meeting (or no interest in what’s being discussed), then don’t invite them. Many people invite their bosses or upper management just for the sake of keeping them in the loop. Bringing in people with nothing to contribute may cause them to ask questions for the sake of looking like they’re participating.

4. Limit the meeting to 30 minutes:

You tend to lose people’s attention after 30 minutes so your most productive time will be the first half hour. If you find that you need more than thirty minutes to cover everything on your agenda, then consider having more than one meeting. There are always exceptions, but keep in mind that agendas tend to stretch to fit the time allotted to them. So having a shorter meeting will encourage everyone to stay focused and discourage non-topic related discussions.

5. Take discussions that are of interest to only a few participants offline:

The telltale sign of this is when only two or three participants are involved in the discussion and everyone else is zoning out. If it’s not of interest to the majority of attendees, then take it offline.

6. Don’t allow tangents to last more than a minute:

Tangents happen at practically all meetings - we’re social creatures and need that bonding.

Instead of cutting off all tangents immediately (which may negatively affect the mood of the meeting), interject your thoughts about the tangent and then say something like “but, anyway” and bring the focus back to the topic.

7. Start and finish on-time:

When you invite people to the meeting, explain that you have a limited amount of time so you’ll be starting promptly at whatever time you specified. People will still come in late but will eventually learn that you start and finish on time.

And a bonus tip: don’t divert from your agenda just to catch people up as that will encourage the behavior - tell them you’d be glad to do so after the meeting.

Also, allot time to each item on your agenda and stick with it. It’s especially effective if you have a printed agenda with the allotted time for each item on it.

8. Bring a few extra copies of printed materials:

It’s not uncommon for uninvited guests to show up, especially in a corporate setting where managers may bring people from their teams that they feel could benefit from attending. So instead of having to run out to the copier (or making attendees share), bring a few extra copies which you can always recycle if no one needs them.

9. Get to the meeting location early:

Depending on your situation, your setup time will vary. You’ll want at least 30 minutes if you need to set up a projector or rearrange the room’s set up. You’ll need at least five minutes to organize handouts, makes notes on a white board or put the place back together if another meeting was scheduled in the room before yours.

10. Anticipate questions and discussions as part of your meeting prep:

Preparing well for a meeting (which is a topic in itself) can make things go smoothly. It’s vital that you anticipate questions and discussion points so you can prepare your responses. You can also bring any notes or supporting materials so you can show attendees instead of having to describe it.

[Overnight Sensation]

Unusual Time Saving Tips

Most pastors could easily fill dozens of extra hours a week with productive ministry — if they simply had more time. I’ll share a few of my slightly weird time saving tips.

1. I’ll Meet You in Your Office

When you need to do a quick face to face meeting with another staff member, tell them you’ll swing by their office. When you’ve covered everything important, you can politely leave — the meeting is over.

If someone is in your office, the person may not know when the meeting is over. A quick, few-minute meeting can linger and bleed over into longer and less important conversations. When you’re in someone else’s office, you can politely exit much easier than you can ask someone to leave your office.

2. Let’s Have Lunch in My Office

Eating out can be a huge time waster. (I’m not saying that having a nice, long lunch isn’t occasionally important, necessary, or enjoyable.) Travel time to many restaurants takes 15 to 30 minutes (or more). Many restaurant meals can take 45 minutes to an hour. A simple lunch can easily eat an hour and a half of your day.

I suggest some other options:

- If you don’t have a lunch appointment, consider bringing lunch from home. Not only can you save money but also time. You can eat in a few minutes in your office and continue working.
- If you don’t have a lunch appointment and didn’t bring your lunch, you might ask another team member to bring you a sandwich if he or she is going out.
- If someone invites you to lunch, you might suggest they join you in your office. If you have an assistant, he or she can grab lunch for you; or you can order-in for delivery. You can spend 45 minutes or an hour of quality time with someone without leaving your office. (If you invite someone to lunch, you’ll probably prefer to honor them and travel to a place that is convenient for them.)

3. Plan for Shorter Appointments

For some reason, when someone schedules an appointment with a pastor, they generally assume it will be a one hour appointment.

Most one hour appointments could be handled in much less time.

Years ago, I shortened my appointments to 45 minutes. We’d explain ahead of time that I have 45 minutes allotted for the meeting. No one complained. We got to the important stuff a lot faster.

After some time, I shortened most meetings to 30 minutes and some to 10 or 15. It is amazing how much important ground you can cover when both parties understand how much time you have to work with and you get right to the important issues.

It also helps to back appointments up to each other. If you have a 1:00 p.m. appointment, you might schedule your next one at 1:45 instead of 2:00. When some people want to go past their time, someone else can politely interrupt and explain that your next appointment is waiting.

4. Do Fewer Meetings

Most people in ministry do way too many meetings.

Instead of scheduling a typical 1 or 2 hour meeting, you might try a 15 minute touch-base meeting. You may cover even more in that brief time.

Or better yet, cut the frequency of your meetings in half. Instead of meeting weekly, try meeting every other week. If that is not possible, you might cancel 1 of 4 meetings a month.

Doing fewer meeting forces you to think further ahead and encourages better planning and intentional communication.

5. Don’t Take Incoming Calls

On very busy days, you might choose not to immediately receive incoming calls.

When I’m crunched for time, I’ll give my cell phone to my assistant. She’ll screen calls for me all day. Generally she can find out what a person needs. When I come out of the office, she might ask me a few quick questions and she can respond to my calls for me.

Instead of handling calls as they come in, you can return them all at once. I like to return calls when I’m traveling in the car making that time more productive.

What suggestions do you have on this subject? (Click "comments" below.)

[by Craig Groeschel - http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/]

Pastor - Stay Sharp

In his book, Practicing Greatness, Reggie McNeal discusses how great leaders need to stay very sharp mentally. Reggie gives us several ways that we can keep our brain chemistry healthy. Some are simple. Others take a little more effort:

• Adequate sleep (a sleep-hungry brain is subject to fuzzy thinking and poor judgment)
• Proper Diet (especially a good amount of protein)
• Moderate your use of alcohol, caffeine, nicotine (don’t use these to medicate your anxiety
• Adequate exercise (helps physically, but also mentally)
• Daily doses of positive human contact (leaders who are connected are keeping their brains "wired")
• Mental recreation (It helps from making your thoughts dull and tired)
• Muse time (time to ponder, noodle, reflect)

[By Todd Rhoades]

Church Volunteer Training

Does your church volunteer training really hit the mark?

Here is an excerpt from Group Volunteers - Tuesday's Tip to answer that question:

1. Make sure your volunteers know your ministry's overall mission. Never assume your leaders know your goals if you haven't told them (or told them recently) what they are. People who don't know how they fit into the big picture quickly lose their enthusiasm. Also, always tie your training in to a specific ministry goal.

2. Leave time at the end of each training session to make sure they understand what you taught. Encourage, prod, and beg them to ask questions about what they're learning. Never end a training time without asking them to repeat, somehow, what they've learned. Group activities can help reinforce spoken teaching.

3. Tell your volunteers where they can get more information on a training topic. Refer your leaders to printed and video resources that can give more in-depth information on a particular topic. Church Volunteer Central members can point their people to thousands of free resources on our site, including online training.

4. Don't assume your volunteers "got it" the first time. Don't be afraid to hit a crucial training topic more than once. For example, if you train your adult leaders on building relationships with teenagers, hit the same topic at your next meeting with a lab experience. Invite youth group members to the meeting and have your leaders use them as guinea pigs to try out their new skills.

5. Give volunteers a booklet of important training tips. It's important for your adult leaders to have an ongoing reminder of what they learn in training meetings.

[Adapted from Group magazine, the world's most-read youth ministry resource. See www.youthministry.com for more information. This post is from Group Volunteers: Tuesday's Tip. These tips can go directly into your inbox, and you can click here to go to their site to receive them.]