Meetings are (generally) useful things.  They allow groups of individuals to get together and figure out a solution to some challenge.  It could be a small thing, like what to get for lunch, or a big thing, like how to send someone to Mars.  Regardless of size, however, it’s incredibly important for them to stay on target.

Humans are, by nature, a bit chaotic.  Many things demand our attention, so it’s no wonder that meetings can wander all over the place as different folks bring up different topics.  This can quickly turn a potentially short productive meeting into a complete waste of time that leaves everyone wondering why they came.  I’ve found a two things that have helped me keep my team on track:

Share a clear agenda - This seems like a no brainer but I constantly find myself with invites to vaguely worded meetings without an agenda.  (As an aside I tend to decline these and ask for an agenda before I accept).  At best this leaves the invitee’s confused as to what is for and wondering why they should attend.  At worst, individuals will simply ignore the invite.  

The Fix : Take a few moments to add bullet points to your meeting invites.  Something as brief as the following can be enough to keep folks on track:

• Review project status from yesterday

• Update risk catalog

• Determine schedule for testing

Keep everyone focused - A (generally) positive thing about meetings is new ideas will come up.  Someone will remember some item, or bring up a related topic that could benefit the group.  The problem is these ideas distract from the purpose of that particular meeting.  Yes, those ideas are important and should be addressed - just not right now.  If unchecked this can easily drag a group down.

The Fix : Don’t be afraid to ask folks to continue a specific discussion later. This could take the form of a quick meeting after the current one, an instant message, an email, whatever, just get them to have the chat later. Clearly acknowledge their idea and it’s importance, but get back to the topic of the call.