Sections of the Meeting- Conclusion

You might be wondering how many blog posts it could take to describe all the sections of the meeting, the answer is 3. In this final post I will review the last parts of the meeting. In the final stages of the meeting you need to tie up all the loose ends just like all good movie directors do. Unless it is a European movies where it just ends and you’re like, “What happened???” For meetings those unsatisfying European movie style endings won’t cut it. You need to finish all the story lines and tie up all the character arcs in the last few parts of your meeting.

Review and summarize 

It's critical to review and summarize the outputs of each section and ensure that everything was covered.  To review be sure to only review the key points of the meeting. Summarize next steps and make sure you didn't miss anything or state anything incorrectly. It might be tempting to skip this as you’ve already covered the content in the body of the meeting, but don’t do it. When you summaries the findings/decisions/take-a-ways you often find out that participants have changed their minds or have new insights. They might say something like, “You know what, we don’t need that. Lets cancel that whole feature.” or, “I’ve realized since we discussed it that we already have that research available. We can review it offline.” Why does this happen? Its because the human mind needs time to sort out things. While the meeting moved on the participants subconscious was busy thinking about that previous section and realizing things. When you take the time to summarize you take advantage of those findings.

The meeting is coming to a close

Assign/Obtain agreement and timelines for each action item

Most meetings go wrong on this final step. If there is an action and it doesn’t have an owner and date then it won't happen. It's just a dream. If a meeting doesn’t have an action item it probably was a waste of everyone's precious time. You might think this doesn’t apply to all meetings. Lets look at an example of a few types of meeting and how it still is applicable:

Conference/Summit: “I want each of you to forward the recording of this summit to 3 colleges who might find this information useful by the end of the day.” or “Each person needs to fill out the post summit survey be Friday.” or “Each of you invite two colleagues to this event next year.”

Expert Panel: “We’ve created a forum to continue this discussion today. Please post one link to an article related that you think everyone else should read.” or “Here are the linkedIn profiles for our panelists, please add them to your network and reach out to tell them one thing you learned today.”

1:1: “I’ve got three action items: I will reach out to Tom to talk about the new features, I will read that book on time management, I will bring over my computer glasses next time so you can try them out.”

I think you’ve gotten the idea by now. Action items help participants feel like they got something out of the meeting. You should try to give some out.

Tips to get every action item an owner and a deadline

Ask who wants to own it and then wait. Let there be an awkward silence. If someone volunteers or gets volunteered, ask them when they can get it done. Then write down the name and the date. Score!

If no one volunteers then, assign an owner. If the person says Yes, then ask them when they can get it done. If they decline ask for another person to volunteer. Get a date and write it down!

Danger zone!

Danger zone:

Someone volunteers someone not in the room. If this happens, then ask the person to own following up and making progress on the action item. At least this way there is some ownership and put a date on it.

We have finally finished up the sections of the meeting. Be a good director and wrap up all the loose ends of your meeting.

Next time we will look at how to manage run-a-way conversations.