Meetings can be an efficient way to discuss issues and solve problems as a team – or, if done ineffectively, a colossal waste of everyone’s time. To make sure that your contact center’s meetings are the former and not the latter, it’s important to have a game plan. Whether you’re planning a one-on-one meeting or a company-wide one, the preparation remains the same.
If you start out on a negative note, your employees will follow your lead. If, however, you begin with a positive attitude, your agents’ behavior during the meeting will reflect that, instead. Start off with light chat. Ask everyone to share how his or her weekend was. Don’t immediately dive into the heart of the meeting. Instead, warm them up and allow them to settle into a good mood. If it’s an early morning meeting, show you care about their wellbeing by providing coffee/tea and a light breakfast assortment. Mid-day meeting? Cater lunch or offer some refreshments. Once everyone has had a chance to chat, you can ask everyone to take their seats and get ready to talk about the agenda points.
Nothing is more important than advance planning, when it comes to making sure your meeting is successful. Determine what specific purpose you are meeting for. That step alone will help guide you as far as which employees need to be there, what will be on the agenda, how much time needs to be spent discussing each item, and what methods you will use to come to decisions. Without a game plan, meetings end up as endless, pointless discussions that get nothing accomplished.
Remember that your agenda is your game plan. If an employee brings up a good point but it is off-topic, jot it down and save it for a later time in the meeting where this point can be discussed (such as if its on the agenda already or you set aside time for general Q & A). You are also responsible for keeping everyone on track and on time. Do not let the conversation stray from the current point; if not, it will never get covered and your remaining points will receive no discussion time.
A day or two before the meeting, get in touch with key attendees. Make sure you are all on the same page as to the purpose of the meeting and work out any discrepancies beforehand. That way, when the meeting gets underway, there won’t be any interruptions or surprises.
It is also helpful to send a reminder memo all attendees and encourage them to come prepared as well. Send them the agenda in advance so they will know what is going on in the meeting (no surprises for them, either!). This way they can prepare questions and ask them when appropriate and ask questions about the meeting before it occurs. Remind them they are encouraged to participate in the discussion; make it mandatory to bring items to take notes and suggest that they come prepared with questions, comments, and/or concerns.
There are people in every organization who just seem to have a knack for complaining and creating conflict. Rather than letting these people hijack your meeting, head them off at the pass and address any concerns they may have in private before the meeting. That way, they won’t feel the need to discuss them at length during the meeting – and as a bonus, working with them one-on-one in this way may even help change their attitude!
But managing conflict in advance isn’t just to save your meeting. It’s also important as a way to show that you are serious about the discussion and about their complaints. After all, you are making sure to provide one-on-one time to discuss their issues before the meeting! Because you will be focused on having a successful meeting, you may not give much thought or time to the individual’s concerns. By speaking with them before you are providing them your undivided attention.
Again, make sure that everyone attending has had a chance to see the agenda beforehand, so they’ll be able to pay attention from the very beginning of the meeting, instead of spending that time reading. The agenda should detail not only what you’ll be talking about but how long you’ll spend on each item. That way, if the 10 minutes allotted to a minor point have passed in rambling discussion, you can easily redirect the group to the next item, pointing to the agenda. If the time is up for discussion on a point but someone still has questions, tell them they can bring the point up again at the end of the meeting during general discussion.
Agendas are extremely useful, not only for keeping meetings on track, but also for ensuring that important attendees are aware of when their participation is necessary and when they might be able to leave early to take care of other duties.
One of the greatest benefits of all this advance planning is the morale boost that will follow. Meeting attendees who expect things to drag on uselessly and indefinitely will tend to become more stressful during a meeting than people who know the schedule will be respected, the meeting will end on time and that all agenda items will accomplished.
