We all attend many meetings. I'm sure you have been to some great meetings and some poor ones. Unfortunately for everyone I've ever talked to Paul George Authentic Jersey , the number of poor ones far outweighs the number of great ones.

The fact is that most meetings are too long, unfocused, too frustrating, and unproductive.

And yet meetings are a valuable way to gain collective understanding, buy-in Patrick Patterson Authentic Jersey , agreement, and consensus. They help us find better solutions and create cooperation, collaboration, colleagueship, and community.

Since meetings are necessary and can lead to important results Kyle Singler Authentic Jersey , we need to figure out how to make more of them successful. I have helped and watched organizations create more effective meetings by doing several things, including teaching people how to use some basic roles, setting some expectations around meeting effectiveness, providing specific tools for people to use, improving the skills of those facilitating the meetings Kevin Hervey Authentic Jersey , and many more things.

Each of these things has a positive impact on meeting effectiveness and productivity. None of them individually has a more positive impact than one key ? what I call the Golden Key ? to meeting success.

The Golden Key

The Golden Key is determining the desired outcome(s) for the meeting.

Think about it. If you are going to have a meeting, inviting 2 or more (often many more) people to join you, shouldn't you be clear on what you want to accomplish? And shouldn't all of the other people you are inviting be equally clear?

Unfortunately, all too often this isn't the case, and this lack of clear focus on the end goal leads to inefficiency and frustration.

Planning Your Meeting

Once you have determined that a meeting is needed Kevin Durant Authentic Jersey , you need to determine the desired outcome(s) for your meeting. Do that by asking yourself questions like:

? What do I want to leave the meeting with?

? What will describe a completely successful meeting?

Or more directly,

? What is the desired outcome of this meeting?

There may be just one, or for a longer or more complex meeting there may be several. Get down these ideas down on a piece of paper or on your computer screen. Then, take the time to craft these ideas into very specific nounverb, past tense statements Jerami Grant Authentic Jersey , like:

? Budget reviewed.