Совещание.  Подготовка совещания

A business or office meeting is a technologically complex and time-consuming exercise. Preparations for the meeting begin with a clear definition of its purpose. Depending on the purpose of the meeting, its agenda is formulated and the composition of the participants is selected.

If the purpose of the meeting is to share information and set the next tasks in the course of the current work, only heads of units are invited. At such a meeting, those present are briefed on the situation, informed them of the progress of the decisions taken at the previous meeting and clearly articulated the objectives for the future.

If the purpose of the meeting is to solve a particular problem, it attracts those who can professionally cope with the task, who are able to offer their own solution to the problem. In this case, the meeting participants are provided with information on the problem, and the task is formulated clearly and uniquely. The purpose of the meeting determines the place, date and time of the meeting. The time of meetings should be determined by the schedule established in the organization.

Meetings are recommended in the afternoon or 1.5 to 2 hours before the end of the work. As a rule, the first half of the day is more productive, and it is better if at this time employees will be busy performing their duties. There is one more thing to consider if a meeting is scheduled at the end of the business day. The director gets the opportunity to hold a meeting quickly, without delaying the discussion, since he has an excuse to stop it in case of adverse development.

One of the rules of the organization of management and ethics of office relations should be the mandatory pre-distribution of the agenda to the participants of the meeting. In addition, the rule of ethics of business relations should be considered to be the pre-distribution of brief written information on the substance of the issues at the meeting. The meeting agenda, which is sent out in advance to the meeting participants, includes: the topic of the meeting; the purpose of the meeting; the list of issues discussed; the start and end times of the meeting; the exact location of the meeting; the names of the speakers responsible for preparing the questions; and the time and place where materials on each issue can be found. raft decisions, abstracts, and references can be sent as attachments to the agenda.

The duration of the meeting depends largely on the type of meeting. Breaks are necessary, first of all, for recreation, and, secondly, during breaks, in a different, relaxed atmosphere, in private conversations, work on the topic of the meeting continues. Compliance with procedural points (rules) is the responsibility of the presiding officer. The importance of following the rules is as follows: the rules allow you to achieve the development of planned issues; discipline the participants of the meeting, increasing their business spirit and respect for the meeting as a collegial body for making important decisions; the rules do not allow unjustifiably prolong the meeting.

The room where the meeting should be held and the number of seats in it should correspond to the number of participants. Naturally, it should be spacious enough and have a reserve of free seats in case the number of participants for one reason or another increases. However, you should not choose too large an audience for a small meeting – the presence of a large number of empty seats psychologically negatively affects the participants of the meeting. In addition, the special furniture should be guided by the principle that the mutual arrangement of participants during the meeting should not emphasize differences in their service and hierarchical status. In this case, the concept of "round table" has a direct and figurative meaning as a means of ensuring the ease of mutual contacts between people and their optimal spatial location.

If a large enough meeting is held, you should take care of installing microphones and visualization tools. You need to control the air temperature, lighting and sound insulation, so that the participants of the meeting are not distracted by foreign irritations. One of the most important things is preparing the Manager for the meeting. The Manager should work out: the wording of the main goal of the meeting and sub-goals by levels of logical subordination; the introductory report or message; the sequence of statements by participants; the draft decision.