¿Cuáles son los errores más comunes que se cometen al dirigir una reunión?

Setting the tone at the beginning and ensuring that there is a defined duration of the meeting enhances focus. Sharing a clear agenda showing who is in charge of each line item.

In early days as a leader, I believed in fostering a collaborative environment and everyone's voice was heard. However, in my eagerness to encourage brainstorming and innovation, I ignored the stated agenda. I became overly lax about adhering to the meeting agenda. Our meetings started to become unproductive marathons, I began to lose the trust and respect of my team. The turning point came when we missed an important deadline because our discussions had veered far off the intended course. It was a wake-up call for me as a leader. I realized that while encouraging brainstorming was essential, it should not come at the expense of structure and discipline. I needed to strike a balance between fostering creativity and maintaining focus.

Most studies showed that over 80% of corporate meetings are a wast of time and unproductive, here are some tips to make it better and productive: 1. Prepare the the stakeholders and yourself for the meeting. 2. Share the agendas for everyone involved in the meeting 3. Be precise and articulate about your thoughts and never listen for the sake of responding, instead listen for the sake of earning something new from the other 4. persons “it’s a dialogue not a conflict” 4. Make sure that everyone has a timeline for his/her talk. 5. No meetings form more than 30 minutes.

I can’t tell you how many times I receive a meeting agenda five minutes before the meeting is about to start or during the start of the meeting. It is so much more beneficial to ensure a fruitful discussion if the agenda is sent out enough in advance that participants actually have time to digest it and prepare for the contributions they will make.

I have also found useful post meeting practice the communication on the progress and completion of the action points and other follow-up items, especially if the next meeting is some days / weeks ahead. Purpose of this is to create the understanding of the completion, but also generate the information that others may need in their decision making and/or going forward with their actions. It is a small yet an effective thing to do. Also, what I like to think as well is that, it creates trust that you are on top of your scope of work and responsibilities, as well as that you deliver.

Every successful meeting begins with a well thought out and written agenda! It should state clearly the goal(s) of the meeting. The goal(s) should be to gain agreement of actions towards achieving stated goals. The more concise goals and ones which there is agreed upon accountability at the meeting will have the most success. Allowing every meeting attendee to share their opinions and ideas will help empower good and effective decisions. It is imperative to leave the meeting with concrete next steps to solve the problem stated in the initial goal(s) and clearly identifying persons responsible for action. Last, appropriately thanking all participants and setting a firm date for group follow-up will help the move toward solutions.

PLEASE - to lead a great meeting give everyone in it a voice! The person that's quiet, or likes to listen before adding, that maybe likes to communicate differently to everyone else in there - make sure they have a way to be heard!!!!!! Everyone that's in your meeting should be there because they've got a valuable contribution to make, be inclusive - give everyone a voice!

I have also found beneficial to keep the agenda visible and check the topics already discussed to show the progress, but also to nudge the participants' awareness on the topics still remaining to be address. And, if possible collect key points and owners, make them visible next to the agenda, for info sharing and ensuring the action ownership.

If the facilitator does not intentionally involve all the participants, he/she will probably have a meeting dominated by the extroverts, the introverts will wait for a proper moment to speak their opinion and if not facilitated properly, that moment will not come. I agree there is an art and a thin line between hearing all the voices and asking them to talk similar to a school environment, but it is necessary in order to have a result that is relevant. In brainstormings the technique that I use is to start either by post-its (if meeting is in person), either by using a tool like Miro or Ideaboardz (if online) to gather ideas, vote them and after that discuss them. Thus I make sure everyone's voice is heard

It is key to provide supportive and clear facilitation of the meeting to ensure a robust discussion. So many times this does not happen and the meeting starts going in the wrong direction or there may be individuals that do not contribute at all which is a lost opportunity.

In this day and age of remote and hybrid meetings, engagement can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of the meeting. A common misconception I have seen in my experience is that engagement can be distracting or even uncomfortable for some. However, taking the time to simply ask for feedback with a quick "Is everyone on the same page?" or "Does this make sense to the group?" encourages interaction and involves the audience. Stimulating participation in any way will make the meeting standout more. Zoom, Teams, and most online meeting platforms now include a breakout space or interactive chats with polls that take just minutes to add and lift the conversation with little effort needed.

When creating your agenda consider which topics others can lead. You can also set the expectation of interactivity and ask specific questions of specific people. Don’t be the one always talking.

So that a meeting has meaning and was not just a waste of participants’ time, it is really critical to take actions after the meeting based on decisions that were made or maybe follow up items that were identified. Often times everyone thinks someone else if doing the follow up or executing the actions, so a recap of who is responsible to do what near the conclusion of the meeting can be very beneficial.

1. Not having a fixed, time-boxed agenda. 2. Not sticking to the agenda. 3. Not assigning sufficient time for open discussions and QnA. 4. Not having a time keeper. 5. Not encouraging everyone to engage, participate and basically make them feel that their opinion is valued. 6. Not baking in sufficient time at start, during or end for informal, light natured banter. 7. Not being action and timeline oriented. 8. Not asking open-ended questions to drive participation by the facilitator. P.S. In virtual meetings, a mistake is to not request everyone to have their cameras on as far as possible and switch it on yourself as the facilitator or conductor to ensure maximum participation and minimize distraction.

Mainly two important attributes: Patience & Questions > Patience to listen > Patience to accept challenges > Patience to resist the urge to speak > Patience to give everyone a chance to contribute > Ask questions to inspire action > Ask questions to challenge critical thinking > Ask questions to lead into solutions > Ask questions understand better

Another trap that many tend to fall into is digression. I have seen - and attended - many meetings where the participants would start to discuss one of the topics on the agenda and gradually start going into details of a tangent one, soon to realize that the entire time allotted to the meeting has elapsed before covering the planned topics or even arriving to a conclusion regarding that side-track. To avoid this issue, I'd recommend keeping the meeting agenda limited in scope, allocating enough time for each topic, reviewing any required resources or reading material before the meeting, and, most importantly, knowing when to designate a topic for a separate discussion.

Meetings being called for discussion / review on any specific topic. Participants / Meeting organisers come with Pre-set mindset in meeting and they try to prove their point instead of understanding other view. Pre-set thought are destroying meeting and also moral of team.

When there is a problem that has to be resolved collaboratively, a meeting is required. As a result, the appropriate persons must be invited, and the agenda must be communicated before the meeting. Another key aspect of meetings is the presence of a moderator who can keep the group on track and stop unnecessary sharing screens or unrelated subject discussions.