Types of Business Meetings

How many of you hate meetings? If you are in business, meetings are a part of your life. In this video, we are going to break down the different types of meetings and why it is important in your business.

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VIDEO SUMMARY

There is always a tradeoff with meetings. If you are working with a group of people, meetings are necessary for communication. But the tradeoff is that every minute you spend in a meeting is one minute less you spend doing the actual work. So it is important as an organization that you think about meetings so you are striking the balance between communication and efficiency. Meetings are very important, but you want to do them effectively.

Something I have found to be helpful is to identify the different types of meetings. Part of the problem is that most people lump all meetings together, when they are actually very different.

So let us discuss five different types of meetings.

1. Status Meeting
2. Brainstorming
3. Operational
4. Training
5. Team building

I am going to break down each of these types of meetings. If you know the type of meeting, you can target the meeting agenda to focus on the purpose of that meeting. The meeting ends up being much more efficient.

1. Status Meeting. This meeting is where a team gets together and reviews a task list. I have been in organizations where they did this every single morning for 15 minutes. But it could be once a week, or once every two weeks, depending on your organization. The benefit of this meeting is communication and prioritization. Everyone understands what everyone else is doing. It also gives you an opportunity as a group to set priorities. You can identify what is the most important, so you know what to tackle first. Things to avoid for this type of meeting is going off on tangents. This is not the meeting to go in depth into any issues or solve problems. This is simply reviewing a list of tasks at a high level. You need to stick to that agenda, or the meeting will quickly run long.
2. Brainstorming. This meeting is where a team comes together to solve a problem as a group. Complex problems require input from experts in different areas. You might need an IT person, a finance person, and a marketing person all to solve a difficult business issue. In this meeting, everyone comes together to solve a problem. The best example of this was from the movie “Apollo 13.” There was a spaceship traveling to the moon, and there was a malfunction. So back at NASA headquarters, they got all their chief engineers in a room and they had a brainstorming meeting. They said, “We have a problem. We need to come up with a solution.” That is brainstorming. It is coming together and working as a group to solve a specific problem. The benefit of this meeting is that two minds are better than one. These are usually issues that cannot be solved by one person alone. It has to be solved by the group. Things to avoid for this type of meeting is talking about other topics. You need to stay focused on the problem that everyone is there to solve.
3. Operational. This is the most common meeting in businesses. It usually involves a business decision that requires input from multiple departments before the decision can be made. For instance, “Should I purchase a $1M piece of software?” “Should I roll out a new company-wide program?” “Should we change our product line?” These type of questions are very common in business, and will not get resolved without a meeting, because they require buy-in from multiple people. The benefit of this meeting is you end up with good decisions that reflect everyone’s priorities. Things to avoid is going off topic. This is the meeting that people screw up the most. It is important to stick to an agenda, where you only talk about the specific question, and you walk away with a yes or no decision.
4. Training. This is different from the other meetings. This meeting is about communicating a information to the audience. You typically have 60 to 100 PowerPoint slides chock full of information that will help the audience be better at their jobs. It is just like a class in school. As the world is constantly changing, it is important that you constantly go through training classes so you can stay up-to-date on the latest innovations. The benefit of this meeting is improved productivity. Things to avoid is training classes that do not benefit the audience. No one wants to sit through a four hour class that has no benefit for them. So it is helpful to make sure that people are only attending trainings that match up to their goals for their position.
5. Team Building. All the meetings so far have been about work. This last meeting is not about work. This is about team building. Sometimes it is important to get together just to socialize and get to know your co-workers. This is ideal for birthday celebrations, lunches, and team building activities. The benefit is higher productivity. A team that understands each other on a personal level, tends to be more productive. Things to avoid is talking about work.

So we have talked about five different meetings. Here is the trick if you are setting up a meeting. Identify which type of meeting it is, and stick to an agenda that reflects the purpose of the meeting. The problem most organizations have, is that people try to combine all these meetings into one. They start going through everyone’s status, then they start to brainstorm, then they start to make business decisions, then they try to go through some training slides, and end with a team building activity. By the end, everyone has been there five hours and feel like they have wasted their time. So I find it helpful to think of meetings in these five different types. It helps keep you more focused and effective at work.

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Neither Zach De Gregorio or Wolves and Finance Inc. shall be liable for any damages related to information in this video. It is recommended you contact a CPA in your area for business advice.