How to Keep Your Meetings Safe, Healthy & Productive

Businesses are beginning to re-open! Life is starting to feel a bit more normal again. Well, at least our new normal.

Businesses need meetings for collaboration and decision-making. And, sometimes, it’s easier to have those meetings in person. After months of Zoom and (capital “F” and “T”) FaceTime, your teams might be craving some actual face time. However, it’s important that your co-workers feel comfortable and productive when the in-person meetings return.

1. Gauge the comfort level of the group. Before deciding to host an in-person meeting, ask the key players if they think it’s a good idea to meet in person. Allow everyone to be honest about their opinion.
2. Let people know they are welcome to come in person or call in. As people’s levels of comfort can vary dramatically, allow team members to do what they think is best. And mean it. It’s unfair to tell people they can phone in if you will hold it against them in reality.
3. Don’t judge other people’s comfort levels. This virus has impacted everyone’s lives in different ways. Some people are high risk, care for elderly parents, or have anxieties and fears about this. It’s emotional and is a personal decision. You don’t know what they have going on in their lives and judging others is never healthy.
4. Try to host the meeting in a large space or outdoor environment. Keep up with the social distancing as best you can. Plus, meeting outside can give people a nice change of scenery and a jolt of creativity.
5. Ask people to wear masks as they arrive. Then, if everyone is comfortable and far enough apart from one other, you can decide to remove them or not. Better to start off playing it safe.
6. Wipe down all the surfaces before the meeting. It’s also nice to let people know you did that so they have fewer germs to worry about.
7. Have sanitizing wipes on hand so people can use them as they wish.
8. Plan an agenda and be mindful of people’s time. Note: this has more to do with respect than the pandemic and should be a practice you keep forever. I bring it up here specifically since you may not have seen your team members for months. Schedule some time before or after the official meeting time to catch up personally.
9. Send the agenda out ahead of time. By sharing the agenda pre-meeting, people can prepare and come to the meeting ready to make decisions. This is especially important if your meeting is off-site. You may need to physically bring certain items with you or prepare something. Since your in-person meetings are infrequent now, you’ll want to use your time to make decisions, not talk about planning for the decision you need to make.
10. Make the action items crystal clear. After the meeting, you all may go back to working from home. That’s why it’s very important that everyone leaves their time together knowing exactly what they need to do and by what date. It’s also critical that what was decided in the meeting becomes the game plan you stick with. We’ve all been to meetings where people passively agree, don’t say what they really feel, and then they engage in side-conversations around the water cooler after the meeting. That’s a really unproductive practice. Even if it’s difficult, use the time together to hash out high-level items that are easier to discuss in-person and move ahead with those actions.

Key Takeaways:

If you need help running more productive meetings, I’m your gal. I bring you my top productivity tips to help you get back control of your time, accomplish more, and be present when you are done for the day.

You Got This! Sarah