I stumbled across a little (hand-written) list of hints for effective meetings and decisions that I wrote down years ago when I was working as an Internet Strategy Director at Intel.
Here goes:
Meetings
- have a clear purpose why you hold a meeting (esp. regular meetings lack this noticeably…)
- have an (agreed upon) agenda
- ensure thar every participant understands his role in the meeting and comes well prepared (sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it…)
- have a clear understanding of how and to whom the results of the meeting will be communicated
I’d add “accurately stick to the timings”…
Decision Making
- define what decisions have to be made (in a meeting, a project phase, etc.)
- define when they have to be made
- define who will (and can) make the decision
- analyse who should be consulted (or notifyed) before deciding
- have a clear understanding who will/can ratify or veto the decision
- define who will need to be informed about the decision
From today’s perspective I would add “analyse who will have to support the implementation of the decision and thus should be involved as a stakeholder” to the list.
Anything else you’d think is relevant?