Being a great facilitator will be a skill that will come in handy for the rest of your life, and allow you to minimize time spent in long boring meetings. I spent much too much time trapped in long boring meetings before I figured out these little tips.
1. Send agenda out in advance (you already do)
2. Every agenda item has an objective, an owner and an amount of time allocated (if you don’t know how much time, ask the owner and then negotiate)
3. Encourage everyone with an agenda item to send written background on subject in advance of meeting. Much more efficient to review a project plan or situation summary than to hear it.
4. In meeting, you are timekeeper. You announce topic, agenda, owner and goal. About 5 minutes before end of allotted time, you do time check “hey guys, we only have 5 more min on this, how should we wrap it up" Give options–you can offer an offline discussion, putting it on an agenda in the future, bumping other agenda items, determining action items, or making a quick decision,
5. At end of each topic, you share all action items/next steps (implement decision, discuss off line, prep for further discussion next week) and who owns what. Save these action items and include them in future agendas, so you can check up on them.
6. Leave 5 min at end of allotted time together to ask if anyone has a topic for the following week.
Remember, unlike money (which you can always make more of) you have limited time. By structuring and managing meetings, you get more from your time.
