Meetings: What's the Point?
When meetings are done well they are generative, collaborative and progress a team forward. Bad meetings are a huge waste of time and energy. I really loved this Harvard Business Review article on meeting wrap up to make sure your meetings end in a way that feels complete and productive.
They offer three steps to effectively end a meeting:
Confirm key decisions and next steps
Develop communication points
Gather session feedback
I'm a big supporter of key decisions/action items over verbatim meeting minutes, and gathering feedback in some variation of what went well and what did not (plus/EBI, plus/Delta, Stop/Start/Continue etc). However, this was the first time I've come across developing communication points as a meeting close ritual. I feel like I've been missing a grand opportunity. It immediately thwarts the shoulder shrug reaction to "what was the point of that meeting?" It avoids miscommunications and gives a shared starting point for the next time the group meets.
If you can't make time for meeting wrap up, is it worth having the meeting at all? That's when you might ask yourself why you are conducting a meeting. Enter flow charts. Here's one example:
See full Fast Co. Article on meetings