Tips for Being Productive in a Meeting Room
Distractions, a lack of rules and poor management can all lead to unproductivity.
How to Set the Stage for a Productive Meeting
Amenities like video conferencing, whiteboards, screens and reliable Wi-Fi can all make huge differences to productivity. Examples like these can encourage participation and keep people engaged. Before your session starts, know what amenities and on-site facilities will be available. Know the purpose of your meeting, how you want to discuss things and how many people are attending. Having a thorough plan means your session should run more smoothly. Let’s look at this in more detail.
Set Ground Rules
There’re many rules you can put together to help participants stay focused. For example, it’s easy for people to become distracted by their mobile phones. You might ask everyone to put their phones on silent or turn them off completely. You may have specific times where phones can be used, like during breaks or for research only.
Another problem which often comes up during discussions is participants having strong opinions. People should listen to others with an open mind and think before speaking. It’s okay to challenge ideas, but this should be done respectfully. Reiterating this at the start of your session will remind attendees how to act during debates and decision making.
Share your list of rules with anyone attending beforehand. Ask everyone if they have any further rules they’d like to suggest. Attendees should agree with the rules and any changes should be made if anyone is unhappy.
Make Roles Clear at the Start
Tell participants what their role is in the meeting in advance. This gives them time to prepare if necessary. You could use a RACI chart to help you do this. This is a project management tool to define someone’s role in a task. The acronym RACI stands for:
- Responsible: This person is responsible for the task
- Accountable: This individual is in charge of approving work
- Consulted: This is usually a team member who will give their opinions and input on work
- Informed: This person doesn’t give input, but should be updated about what’s going on
If people know what their role is for certain tasks or within the meeting overall, then there will be less confusion.
Staying Focused in the Meeting Room
It’s best to start by limiting distractions to keep everyone feeling productive. Ground rules for phones is a good place to start. Choose a quiet location and shut any windows or doors if it’s noisy outside the room. If you’re worried about people coming in, put a sign on the door saying that a meeting is in progress. Your space should also be comfortable because it can be harder to concentrate if not. Limited seating or space can be two factors which can affect comfort.
As well as managing distractions, make sure attendees are given frequent breaks. Time away to recharge and grab a snack can make a huge difference in how productive an individual can be. Choosing an office with on-site food facilities and break out spaces can help with this.
Encouraging active collaboration in your session is another way to keep participants feeling productive. They may enjoy chipping in to help solve problems or building on ideas might allow them to be creative. Being talked at by a speaker can sometimes cause people to lose interest.
Managing Time
Having an agenda will help you manage time better. Assigning a time limit for specific tasks can help you stay on track. If you think a discussion or debate is going off topic, remind people of the time you have left. If you’re hiring a workspace for a certain number of hours, time is something you’ll have to keep an eye on. It could be a good plan to book an extra hour if you think your session could run over.
What Happens Once the Meeting is Over
A session should end with an overview of anything important which was discussed. If there’s anything anyone needs to do once the day is over, they need to be aware. You may give attendees the chance to discuss with the group what their next steps will be. Send around anything you think might be useful like important notes or presentation slides. Allowing people to take their own notes means they can write down anything they think is helpful during the session.
How Spacepool's Meeting Rooms Can Help
At Spacepool, we have a range of meeting rooms to explore so can you find one that works for you and your team. Each comes with different layouts, amenities and facilities. You can use our filtering tool to find anything specific. Find a space which is perfect for you and your business today!