Prepare For The meeting

◦Define the objectives and desired outcomes. Know what you are trying to achieve by having a meeting.
◦Determine if a different activity or medium could be used besides a meeting. A lot of wasted meetings are called when a couple of phone calls, email, or one-on-ones would have worked better.
◦Determine topics to cover and the best format for the discussion of each one. Know what you want to get accomplished by the end of the meeting.
◦Estimate the length of the meeting. People need to know how much time they need to allocate for the meeting.
◦Create an agenda that is carefully scripted: ◦Give Start and Stop times. Time is money — plan wisely!
◦Identify the place of the meeting.
◦List participants and guests.
◦List what the participants roles are and what is expected from them so they may gather all the relevant data they need to bring to the meeting.
◦Prepare a structured discussion to frame the purpose, topics, and direction of the meeting.

◦Deliver the agenda in advance so that the participants have time to plan and prepare for the meeting.
◦Make every meeting a learning event: incorporate creative and cutting edge education on your particular topic by using books, speakers, or videos. The people attending are giving up their time for you, thus you need to give something back to them.
◦Use a variety of tools and activities to make the meeting productive and fun — get them charged up!