How To Chair A Meeting

Before the meeting:

Have a PAIR: This is an acronym for Purpose And Intended Result. You should have a real purpose before even calling a meeting. No purpose, no meeting. When you chair a meeting, ensure everyone knows and understand why it’s being held and what the intended result is going to be.

Ask for input on the agenda: By asking for input from meeting attendees, you ensure everyone knows they are there for a reason and the meeting items will be important for them to listen to

Send the agenda out before the meetup: That way, everyone knows what’s being covered and they can prepare for their part accordingly.

During the meeting:

Conduct a learning roundtable: Ask people what they have learned since the last meeting and what they have applied. Ask for results obtained so people can see you are progressing as a team and as a company.

Watch a TED talk that’s relevant to the meeting subject: Not the whole talk if it’s too long. Pick a snippet and play that. It’s great to hear ideas from an expert in their field, even for just a few minutes.

Run a team activity: Download a five or ten-minute activity and play it with the team. It will be a good icebreaker and will get people’s spirits up.

Change locations: Consider taking people to a coffee shop or somewhere else offsite so that they enjoy new surroundings and have a different perspective on what they are discussing.

Take all the chairs out and stand up!: That will certainly focus the mind! You’ll be surprised by how quickly you get things done, as well!

Engage the team in brainstorming: You want to do activities that will keep the team occupied and active all the time. Try getting a brainstorming session running, with one of the team (not you) responsible for note taking on the flipchart.

Make the last few minutes ‘action-oriented’: This means finding out from all attendees what actions they are going to take as a result of being there for the time they have taken. Make sure the actions are agreed and the time taken for application noted.

End of the meeting:

Summarise what you have agreed and ensure everyone knows their responsibilities: You don’t want people coming back at the next meeting and saying they didn’t know what they needed to do.

Agree on the next meeting date: Only do this if you have a specific PAIR for that meeting.

Agree who will write any minutes up and assign responsibilities for actions: This way, people will understand what they must do next

Your role as meeting chairperson is to ensure it goes as planned and is recognised by all attendees as a useful spend of their time, plus by chairing meetings effectively, you encourage attendees to come up with ideas and actually look forward to attending.