While the world is in constant progression and change, there is no longer the idea of “the right way” to conduct a meeting. However, there are ways to get the most out of meetings that lead to better solutions and knowledge sharing. No company can achieve their desired success by staying the same; there is always a need for growth and new ideas. These ideas can be established through developing goals. These ideas and goals can be conveyed at a meeting, which are presented to others to be able to think about and then add their thoughts and ideas that will, “get the ball rolling”.
The days of non-interaction or sitting quietly in the corner, scribbling half-ideas, are coming to an end. Studies using interactive learning, as explained by Sean Cordes, of Western Illinois University found that “some teams had greater communication affordance with ability to view and structure information using a shared document. Action process teams had greater team climate perceptions and decision quality than ad hoc process teams. This effect was greater when teams also had increased communication capability. ” (2017)
Meetings are a perfect time to create and reassert the focus of your organization. The companies that successfully cultivate a focus can know exactly know exactly how to properly deploy assets and effort. You should also set goals based around internal measurement, including expansion and boosting employee morale. It is important to have productive meetings that support these goals and the goals that align with the company’s goals. If the goals aren’t well thought out or match the SMART goal criteria, the meeting offers a space to create new ones. Aim to have goals that are SMART or
- Specific or significant and stretching:
Exactly what is it you want to achieve as an organization? A good goal statement explains the what, why, who, where and when. They will be well defined and easy to understand. Avoid vague goal statements, it will make it harder to achieve and harder to define success.
- Measurable – or meaningful and motivational:
You must be able to track progress and measure the result of your goal. A recommendation for a good goal statement is create goals that answer the questions: how much or how many. Do you know how and when the goal will be achieved?
- Attainable – or action-oriented , agreed upon, achievable, assessable, appropriate:
Your goal must be relevant to your organization and there should be agreement with all the members and participants on what the goals should be. Your goals also must be achievable so you don’t get off track. They can be stretchable, but make sure you can actually reach them.
- Relevant – or realistic, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented:
Your goal should be important to your business and address a fundamental initiative. Make sure the steps needed to achieve your goal are within your control and prolific; they also pertain to your company’s ethics, values, and vision.
- Timely - or time-based, time-bound, tangible, trackable:
Goals must have a time limit. It should answer “When will I achieve my goal”? Without deadlines, it becomes easy to put goals on the backburner, forget about them, or abandon them. As well as a deadline, it's a good idea to set some short-term goals along the way to help with measurement.
Goals should be linked to a timeframe that creates a practical sense of urgency, or results in pressure between the current realities of where you stand to the visualization of the goal. Without urgency, the goal is unlikely to produce a relevant or progressive outcome. The goals you set should not measure activities, but should measure outcomes. They should be feasible; the goals should feel challenging, but defined and focused enough so that they are achievable. You must have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to achieve the goal. Goals should be measurable so that you have tangible evidence that you have accomplished the goal. Sometimes, the entire goal statement is a measure for the project, but you should provide several short-term or smaller measurements based off of each goal. Lastly, goals should be straight to the point while clearly defining what you are going to accomplish. Utilizing interactive meeting technology will help you define and harness these goals, in real-time, and allow you to track them or alter them as you need.
Using an audience response system at your meeting makes it much easier to develop and stay on track with your goals. The audience response system enhances group decision making, supported by the decision support software that can compartmentalize and rank data. Results are calculated instantaneously, and decisions can be made much quicker, and everyone can equally participate. The interactivity of the group and advanced way of communicating with a meeting leads to powerful discussions that will provide for more focused goals, while accelerating the entire decision making process.
After you’ve developed and agreed upon your goals, the decision support software allows you to easily import and keep track of data, before, during, and after the meeting. With your new SMART goals established, the audience response system is quickly able to rank goals by importance and urgency as decided by the group. After the meeting, quickly export and share data among team members, and always be aware of your goals and progression. This helps achieve specificity, measurability, attainability, relevance, and timelines, all of the parts of SMART goals. Utilizing interactive meeting technology at meetings is rapidly becoming a must for achieving focused, timely, and productive meetings.
If you want your next meeting to be the most productive yet, follow the “Learn More” button below to find out more about interactive meetings and audience response software.
References:
Cordes, S. (2017). Share (And Not) Share Alike: Improving Virtual Team Climate and Decision Performance. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 28(1), 29-48. Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
Haughey, D. (n.d.). SMART Goals. Retrieved February 22, 2017, from https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.php
