Good Meeting Manners  

   

 

Every meeting is different 

Objectives, participants, culture, venue or content are all changeable factors that mean there are few, if any, hard and fast rules for what makes a good meeting, merely suggestions and guidelines to bear in mind.

Meeting manners

  • Follow the dress code. If you’ve told everyone to come in smart casual, don’t show up in a three-piece suit.

  • Allow everyone to speak and finish their points. Do not interrupt and be mindful that everyone is able to have their say.

  • Show up on time and keep to the time limit. Everyone has places to be!

  • Be brief and concise. Stay on topic

  • Be an attentive listener and an active and positive participant.

  • Be sure that your tone and body language is not communicating boredom.

  • Make a concerted effort to remember everyone’s name, address them as such and get the pronunciation right.

  • Allow for frequent coffee and restroom breaks. If participants can pop off
    to the toilet in the break rather than having to ask to use the restroom in
    front of the whole team then it will probably be appreciated. Generally a
    10-15 min break every 1.5 hours is deemed appropriate.

After the meeting

Be sure that you learn from every meeting; both what worked and what didn’t

For big meetings with lots of people who you don’t necessarily know very well, send out a brief online survey to gauge their reactions. For smaller, more informal sessions, ask at the end for some quick feedback from each member.

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