Mannaging meeting

Meeting- a planned occasion when people come together to discuss something. Preparation of the meeting begins with determining the need and feasibility of holding a business meeting. When justifying the need for a meeting, the Manager must formulate tasks that require optimal and timely solutions.

When preparing for a meeting, first of all, it is necessary to determine the degree of its necessity and try to shorten its duration as much as possible. To do this, perform several stages of preparatory work, which will indicate the degree of preliminary elaboration of the issues to be discussed. These steps include:

* preparation of several versions of draft decisions on issues to be considered at the meeting;

· the distribution of draft decisions to interested and competent in the proposed organizational departments and specialists with a request to give its opinion by the deadline. This conclusion should include either the adoption of one of the draft decisions, or proposals to adjust one of its acceptable options, or its own interpretation of the new decision;

processing opinions received from departments or individual specialists on draft decisions and working out the need for a meeting.

A meeting makes sense if there is a need to exchange information; identify opinions and alternatives; analyze complex (non-standard) situations; and decide on complex issues. The Manager should analyze all the alternatives for holding the meeting: the decision of the top Manager; the possibility of resolving the issue over the phone; conference call the possibility of combining with other (planned) meetings. After that, if the Manager is convinced that the meeting is useful, it can be held. Otherwise, the meeting must be abandoned.

After a decision is made on the need for a meeting, the agenda and the composition of its participants are determined.

During the preparation of the agenda, it is necessary to determine:

1) the topic of the relevant meeting and the content of the issues discussed;

2) the conditions to be met by the end result of the meeting in order to determine the purpose of the meeting;

3) who and what kind of preparatory work should be carried out (it is advisable to create a working group to form the agenda, holding preliminary meetings in divisions).

To participate in the meeting, it is necessary to involve officials who are most competent in the issue under discussion. Since a business meeting involves a free discussion, it is necessary first of all to select disputants, i.e. rather calm, self-contained people who are able to respond adequately to opposing points of view and their authors.

It is necessary to determine the day and time of the event. It is recommended that you set a specific day of the week for the meeting, which allows participants to plan their working hours correctly and prepare for it. The best day for a meeting is Wednesday or Thursday. We recommend that you schedule meetings for the first half of the working day.

As a rule, a significant part (more than 70%) of business meetings are held in the office of the head of the organization. However, it is better to convene the meeting in specially equipped rooms for this purpose. In General, those invited to the meeting sit down at a rectangular table.

The room must have good sound insulation, normal temperature and relative humidity, comfortable furniture, ventilation, etc.

Preparation of participants of the meeting is the last stage of preparatory work in the procedure of organizing business meetings, when it is provided that all participants are first acquainted with the agenda and necessary materials. Everyone should know in advance the topics and tasks of the meeting.

The optimal duration of the meeting is no more than 1 hour. If the circumstances require longer work, then after 40 minutes of the meeting, it is necessary to declare a 10-15-minute break .

The minutes of the meeting are the primary official document on the basis of which the Manager has the right to require employees to perform the tasks assigned to them. The Secretary of the meeting records the most important points in the minutes: achievement of the purpose of the meeting; decisions; performers and deadlines.

That way, in general, the preparations for the meeting includes the following activities: defining the issues, setting the agenda, defining objectives of the meeting and its total duration, date and time, composition of participants, the approximate work schedule, the totals, the definition of follow-up. An important General rule of business ethics is the inadmissibility of holding an unprepared meeting - the result will be a loss of time and trust in the organizer.