Meetings take a lot of man hours and productive time. Unfortunately many meetings are not effective!

Here are eight keys for organizing an effective meeting:

– Define the objective – Visualize the end result right down to the emotions. This will help you to clarify the big picture and your role in it

– Distribute the purpose of the meeting and share what you expect from each participant at least a few days in advance to give adequate time for preparation

– Start the meeting on time and end it on time (or even early if possible)

– Step away from a boxed-in ‘either or approach’ and evaluate several new chains of thoughts and ideas

– Do not allow any one or two people to dominate the meeting

– Close the meeting with a clear outline of the next steps as well as what kind of a review mechanism will be adopted. Address who will do the review, when and how

– A positive ending always wraps up the meeting with everyone feeling inspired to carry out the next steps with a SPARK

– The key to a successful interaction or meeting or any business for that matter is rooted in a quote by late Zig Ziglar: “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”